


Signs of Love

by toomanyunfinishedfics



Category: Persona 4
Genre: "Don't ever do that again!", "I almost lost you", (For November), (Update: I finished writing all of the prompts, Accidental Kiss, Added Nanako to the tags for the Birthday Surprise prompt, Anxiety, Because really who would I be if I didn't squeeze at least one Souyo+Nanako fic in here lmao, Childhood Friends, Comfort hug, Fluff, Fluff Bingo, Holding Your Hair Back, Horror Movie Night, Hurt/Comfort, I haven't written all of the prompts yet so I might add more tags later, Karaoke, M/M, Meet the Family, Nothing bad happens but there's a small argument that Yosuke diffuses, Pet Names, Piggy back ride, Pre-Relationship, Sharing an umbrella, Souji @ Yosuke: mom said it's my turn with the anxiety, Souji doesn't really get along well with his parents, Spoilers, Spoilers (for January P4G), Spoilers (for the true end), Uhhhh not sure how to tag this one, Yes all 16 of these prompts are going to be pre-relationship lmao, birthday surprise, but tags are still subject to change in case I forgot anything lol), formal wear, hair petting, kiss on the forehead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24372256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanyunfinishedfics/pseuds/toomanyunfinishedfics
Summary: A small glimpse into the entwined lives of Souji and Yosuke, and the relationship they share.(A collection of 16 Fluff Bingo prompt drabbles/mini fics)
Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Hanamura Yosuke/Persona 4 Protagonist, Hanamura Yosuke/Seta Souji
Comments: 170
Kudos: 365





	1. Comfort Hug

**Author's Note:**

> So I had [these Fluff Bingo prompts](https://66.media.tumblr.com/2de80d41122986c5b7e825486f4151c7/tumblr_pd2dkgSxJ31qmp5too1_640.png) bookmarked for a while and I've been working on them on and off, and now that I'm about halfway done with writing them I figured I might as well start posting them lmao;;
> 
> ~~Also I started writing them before Souyo week was announced, and I'd already planned to time my updates so that the birthday prompt would fall on Yosuke's birthday, so... I guess that just means I'm going to have a double update to celebrate Yosuke's birthday this year asdfjk~~
> 
> I'm going to try and stick to a schedule with this fic, with updates on every other Monday! Here's hoping I can keep up with it ;u;
> 
> Enjoy!! ^^

Souji was leaving.

It was something he’d known from the first day he arrived in Inaba: he was only going to be here for one year, before returning to Tokyo. It was why he’d been reluctant to make any friends at first, before getting tossed head-first into the whole TV world business with Shadows and Personas and solving a murder case alongside a group of ride or die teammates.

Now, however, he was acutely remembering the reason he stopped letting himself grow attached to anywhere, or any _one_.

He hadn’t felt the pain of having to leave a part of his heart behind in a long time--since the first move, in fact, back when he was just a small child that couldn’t fully understand why he wasn’t able to see his friends ever again. Not that he would _never_ be able to see any of the friends he’d made in Inaba ever again--Inaba was his _home_ now, more than anywhere he’d ever lived in his entire life--but it wouldn’t be as easy as walking out of his house and wandering down to Junes or the shopping district or the Samegawa.

Golden Week wasn’t too far away. He would be able to handle going back to being all alone until then. He’d survived practically as long as he could remember in an empty house, hadn’t he? One year of experiencing the companionship that he’d so desperately craved wasn’t going to change his self-sufficiency.

He could do this. He had to do this. He had no choice but to do this.

Besides, his friends were just as upset about him leaving, and the last thing he wanted to do was burden them and make them feel even worse by expressing his own feelings on the matter.

So he spent his last days allowing his friends to pull him in all directions, giving them all equal attention and equal comfort in turn as he reminded them over and over again that they would stay in touch, that he would be back to visit soon enough, that he would--in the case of Rise and Naoto--be sure to meet up with them as often as possible in Tokyo--

\--all while doing his best to commit to heart the words of reassurance that he was giving out so easily, to chase away his own doubts and fears.

When Yosuke asked him to meet him at the Samegawa, Souji thought nothing of it, figuring at most that his partner was finally going to approach the subject of Souji’s upcoming departure--which he’d been doing his best to avoid in the few times that they hung out recently, as if not talking about it would make it so it never had to happen.

If only it were that easy.

To Souji’s surprise, Yosuke was already sitting on the grass waiting for him by the time he arrived, even though Souji himself was a few minutes earlier than the time they’d agreed to meet up at.

“Yosuke,” Souji greeted with a small smile, approaching his partner’s side and taking a seat next to him.

Yosuke gave him a hesitant smile in return as he pulled his headphones off of his ears, and Souji noted curiously that there was no music playing from them--either he’d stopped the music when he heard Souji approach, or he just hadn’t been listening to anything in the first place.

Regardless, between the lack of music and the expression on Yosuke’s face, it was clear that he had something serious on his mind. Not that it was hard to guess what it was, but Souji figured it would be better to let Yosuke speak up when he was ready, instead merely sitting in silence next to his best friend as he did his best to commit everything to memory: the sight of the river, the sounds of the water gently flowing and the birds quietly chirping, the feeling of Yosuke’s warm, familiar presence next to him… if Souji wouldn’t be able to experience this again until Golden Week, then he at least wanted to have these memories to look back on.

“Just a few days left, huh….”

Yosuke’s voice, though only a soft murmur, pulled Souji from his thoughts, and he turned the slightest bit to give Yosuke his full attention.

What Yosuke said next, however, caught Souji completely off-guard.

“How are you holding up?”

Souji blinked, his reply slipping out before he could even stop to think about it. “I’m fine.”

Yosuke frowned slightly, turning to face Souji properly--and when Yosuke met his gaze, Souji found himself struggling to stop himself from looking away, feeling as if Yosuke was staring straight through the mask he’d unconsciously hid behind to keep his friends from worrying.

“Partner,” Yosuke began, pausing for a moment as his frown deepened in thought before trying again. “ _Souji_.”

Souji found himself sitting up just the slightest bit straighter at the use of his name. Yosuke hardly ever used his name, and the effect was just as instantaneous as when Souji called Yosuke _partner_.

“I’ve been dumping my crap on you this entire year,” Yosuke continued, waving a hand flippantly as Souji opened his mouth to protest. “Yeah, yeah, I know, you didn’t mind and that’s what partners are for--but that’s exactly my point: we’re _partners_ , but you… you always just deal with your problems on your own. I get that I’m not the most reliable guy, but--”

“That’s not true,” Souji hastily replied, firmly cutting Yosuke off. “That’s not it. That’s not why I….”

They fell into silence, and Souji felt his heart clenching and his stomach beginning to twist--the _last_ thing he wanted was to get in any sort of argument with Yosuke, but it was just _so hard_ to be open about his feelings, especially when he didn’t want to make anyone any more distressed about him leaving than they already were.

Finally, Yosuke let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Alright. Okay. Let’s try this again.”

Before Souji could question what he meant, he found himself being pulled forward, his breath hitching in shock as his head came to rest against Yosuke’s shoulder with Yosuke’s arms settling around him.

“You’ve been going around, making sure everyone’s taken care of and no one’s upset, but… it’s okay for you to be upset too, you know.”

Against his will, Souji found his throat tightening in barely-restrained emotion, his eyes burning with tears that he tried to stop from falling.

Finally, he hesitantly let his arms circle around to return Yosuke’s hug, his fingers tentatively gripping the back of Yosuke’s jacket even as he whispered in a wry, strained voice, “I thought you said hugs were for girls?”

Yosuke huffed and lightly hit the top of Souji’s head, his face flushed. “Yeah, well, I’m making an exception.” In a quieter tone, he murmured, “You just… looked like you needed it.”

It was the realization that Yosuke had seen right through him this whole time--that perhaps Yosuke avoiding talking about him leaving this whole time hadn’t been for his own sake, so much as it had been for _Souji’s_ , upon realizing how worn down Souji was growing from spending time with everyone else and hearing them constantly bringing up his rapidly-upcoming departure in some way--that finally broke Souji down.

“I don’t want to leave,” he confessed, his voice hardly even carrying to Yosuke’s ears despite them being so close.

Yosuke rested his hand against Souji’s head, his expression softening as he felt his shoulder growing wet, felt the light tremors running through Souji’s body and heard the hitched, uneven breaths as Souji tightened his hold on him.

“I know,” Yosuke murmured.

There were no reassurances, no words of optimism, no promises that everything would be okay--

Yosuke hugged him tighter in return as he whispered in a quiet, choked-up voice of his own, “I’m going to miss you.”

\--there was only recognition, acceptance, and a level of emotionally-raw reciprocation that Souji could only ever find with his partner, his equal, the one person that truly _understood_ him in a way that no one else could.

“I’m going to miss you too, partner.”

Despite the tears still clouding his vision, Souji couldn’t help but relax in Yosuke’s arms.

The pain of having to leave was still there, nor would it ever go away--but right now, as Yosuke held him and shared in his grief, Souji couldn’t help but think that, somehow, everything really would be okay after all.


	2. Accidental Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly had no idea how to approach this prompt at first without Yosuke running for the hills screaming in the end, but I think I ended up doing a pretty good job with it even if I feel bad for how horrible Yosuke's luck is lmao

There really had to be some sort of god out there with a personal vendetta against Yosuke. It was the only explanation for how a single person’s luck could be _this_ abysmal.

The day started off with his alarm clock not going off, causing him to oversleep--and as if that hadn’t been bad enough, he was roughly jarred out of his sleep by the sound of Teddie accidentally knocking over his precariously-balanced stack of brand new CDs that he hadn’t had the time or energy to put away yet. To make matters even _worse_ , of _course_ out of all of the CDs that fell, it was the one he’d been looking forward to listening to the most that somehow managed to get cracked.

Yosuke knew it was just an accident, but it had been very, _very_ hard not to snap at Teddie in between rushing to get ready for school.

He was already ridiculously late by the time he ran out of the house, which meant there was no time to grab anything to eat--for breakfast or for lunch, though hopefully Souji would at least be able to help with the latter--as he unchained his bike and hopped on, foregoing an umbrella despite the light drizzling rain after remembering his _last_ spectacular attempt at trying to ride a bike and carry an umbrella at the same time.

Except he wasn’t expecting the skies to suddenly open when he was halfway to school, the light drizzle turning into a downpour that soaked Yosuke to the bone--and, like the rotten cherry on top of a perfectly fucked-up sundae, the chain on his bike got snagged as he frantically pedaled the rest of the way, causing his front wheel to lock up and sending him flying off of his bike and right into a muddy puddle in the middle of the road.

At least the rain washed off most of the mud by the time he managed to trudge the rest of the way to school, dragging his broken bike with him, though that didn’t stop the few other tardy students that caught sight of him from snickering at his expense.

He forewent trying to attend whatever was left of his first period of classes in favor of going to the bathroom, trying to clean and dry himself off as best as he could with just a bathroom sink and some paper towels to work with--and by the time he slid himself into his seat just before the bell rang for second period, flopping listlessly down on his desk with his head cushioned on his arms, he was already wishing the day would just end so he could go home.

Life would never be that easy, though. Not for Yosuke “unluckiest man alive” Hanamura, no sir.

“Hey, are you paying attention, Hanamura!? I doubt you have many deep thoughts going on in your daily life, so I’m sure you have enough space in your empty head to remember who said ‘Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed’, right?”

Of _course_ King Moron would call him out on zoning out, make a dig at him, _and_ force him to answer a question that he had no idea the correct response to. Like his day wasn’t already going horribly as it was.

“ _Pascal_.”

Thank god for Souji. At least there was _one_ person in the universe that didn’t gain joy from Yosuke’s suffering.

Yosuke repeated the answer, ignoring King Moron’s jab about how he’d been sitting there with a “stupid look on his face” in favor of whispering his thanks to Souji, who turned just enough in his seat to give Yosuke a small smile before quickly turning back around, not wanting to risk getting caught and reprimanded by their surly teacher.

As soon as class was over, however, Souji wasted no time in properly turning in his seat to face Yosuke with a concerned frown. “Yosuke, what _happened_ to you? I was getting worried when you didn’t show up, and you’re soaked….”

Yosuke blinked, caught off-guard, before shrugging weakly. “Woke up late, got caught in the rain, bike chain got snagged and I fell--y’know, the usual,” he joked, hoping that making light of the situation would ease Souji’s worries.

It didn’t, but hey, at least Yosuke tried.

“We have a few minutes before the next class starts,” Souji said as he rose out of his seat, grabbing Yosuke’s arm and gently tugging him up with him. “There’s a few spare uniforms in the drama club room. I can borrow one for you.”

“Partner, you’re a _saint_ ,” Yosuke declared, allowing Souji to pull him along and feeling relieved to know that things were finally starting to look up after his nonstop chain of bad luck.

* * *

Unfortunately, Yosuke’s reprieve from what was rapidly becoming one of the worst days of school he’d ever lived through ended with a dry uniform and a spare towel from the gym: Souji had already promised to spend lunch with Kou and Daisuke, and Yosuke had forgotten his wallet at home so he couldn’t even buy food if he wanted to, leaving him hungry and irritable as he forced himself to sit through the remaining half of his school day.

Only to remember that today was his turn on cleaning duty.

Normally he would be more than fine with having to stay behind to clean--it was a hell of a lot better than having to deal with a shift at Junes, at least, so he figured he should count his blessings and be glad that he didn’t have to deal with _that_ today--but all he wanted to do right now was go _home_.

Not to mention how every time he was up for cleaning duty, whoever else was assigned with him _mysteriously_ had a legitimate excuse that got them out of having to stay, while Yosuke wasn’t even able to get out of it when he actually had to go to work. It was ridiculous how much this town hated him, sometimes. Or all of the time, really.

Having some extra help would have at least made things tolerable, but Yosuke knew that he would have to just grit his teeth and bear it as usual. Maybe he could just rush through it so he could go home faster; it wasn’t like anyone expected much out of him anyway.

Just as he was trying to figure out the fastest way to clean the classroom besides throwing a few buckets of water everywhere and calling it a day, Yosuke was startled out of his thoughts by a pat on the shoulder, moments before Souji came into view as he walked past him and over to the cleaning supplies.

“Wh-- wait, _partner?_ I thought-- didn’t you have practice today?”

Souji shrugged and grabbed a bucket and sponge, as if it were the most natural thing to just show up and start cleaning despite having already done his duties for the month. “Practice was cancelled, so I figured I’d come and give you a hand.”

“Partner, have I mentioned how much of a _godsend_ you are?” Yosuke replied with a grin that widened at the sight of Souji’s small smile. “Let’s get this done quick and get out of here. I’ve gotta swing by my place real quick to grab my wallet, but after that, do you wanna go grab some food?”

Yosuke took another bucket and filled it up with water and soap, getting to work on the floors while Souji cleaned the chalkboard.

“I promised Nanako I would cook dinner tonight,” Souji replied, before adding with a glance over his shoulder, “but you’re more than welcome to come over if you’d like.”

“After the day I had? There’s no _way_ I could say no to a home-cooked meal from you,” Yosuke replied with a soft laugh. “Thanks, partner.”

Yosuke just barely caught sight of Souji’s smile widening a fraction before Souji turned back around to continue cleaning.

“Anytime, partner.”

The simple yet genuine response caused Yosuke’s cheeks to heat up despite the silly grin on his face, and he returned his attention to cleaning the floors with renewed vigor, safe in the knowledge that he’d _finally_ run out of bad luck for the day.

Apparently he’d spoken too soon, though: in his overeager haste to finish cleaning, he dragged a bit too much water out of the bucket with his mop, coating the floor with a puddle of water without realizing until he’d already stepped onto the slippery mess.

The only warning that Souji had was a loud yelp as Yosuke flailed, trying to keep from losing his balance--but that was enough to spur him to action as he dropped his sponge and spun around, rushing over to Yosuke to catch him before he could fall and hit his head on one of the desks.

He failed to take into account the possibility of losing his _own_ balance in the process, however, resulting in the two of them falling to the ground in a heap, with Yosuke on top of him.

Or more specifically, with Yosuke’s _lips_ on top of _his_.

They stared at each other, wide-eyed and frozen in place, neither one moving an inch as their minds struggled to catch up with what just happened.

The first coherent thought that Yosuke found flitting through his mind was that Souji’s lips were surprisingly soft--and then that Souji’s chest was more muscular than he realized yet somehow still comfortable to lean against, and that Souji had _really_ nice eyes and his hands felt nice and secure on Yosuke’s back and--

And Souji was blushing, and somehow _that_ was what finally snapped Yosuke back to awareness as he scrambled off of Souji with a noise that was half a mortified screech and half a garbled, embarrassed apology that was immediately cut off as Yosuke’s flailing hand caught on the bucket of water behind him, catapulting it over his head and dousing him with the remaining contents.

There was another long stretch of silence, in which Yosuke considered just getting up and throwing himself out of the nearest window, before he finally heard a rare sound: so rare, that he had to tentatively lift the bucket off of his head to see for himself whether or not the sound was what he thought it was.

Sitting there before him was Souji, doubled over with laughter--and somehow it was the most beautiful sight Yosuke had ever seen, embarrassment be damned.

“S-sor-- sorry I-- I just--” Souji wheezed out in between laughs, moving a hand to cover his face in a poor attempt to stifle his laughing fit, “I’m sorry, I-- I’m not trying t-- to laugh at you, I just-- oh my god--”

Yosuke couldn’t help it: despite knowing that this should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back after every other shitty thing that happened today, somehow Yosuke found himself breaking out into laughter as well, his heart feeling light and his embarrassment fading to the back of his mind.

Only his partner could somehow manage to take one of the worst days of Yosuke’s life and turn it around like this, even after something as mortifying as them accidentally kissing.

The reminder of what happened caused another wave of embarrassment to briefly hit him, but he quickly shoved it aside, not wanting to spoil either of their good moods by bringing it up.

Still, even after their laughter died down and Souji went to get him some more towels to dry off (yet again), Yosuke couldn’t help but tentatively touch his fingers to his lips as he tried and failed to repress a smile.

Regardless of whether or not there really was a god out there with a personal vendetta against Yosuke, he was starting to think that maybe he didn’t have horrible luck after all--he’d probably just been saving up all of his luck to find a partner like Souji to stick with him through all the bad times, taking even the worst situations and helping turn them into a pleasant memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update is going to be for Yosuke's birthday!! ;u; Which is also going to be a double upload day since Souyo week falls on Yosuke's birthday too lol


	3. Birthday Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is definitely the longest prompt I have written so far, and is probably going to be the longest one in the entire collection lmao;; My Soujimuse ran wild with this one, he wanted Yosuke's birthday to be perfect lol
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys both this birthday celebration for Yosuke, and the birthday fic in [Gaze in Fascination](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24842092/chapters/60135856) for Souyo Week! ;u;

Souji found out about Yosuke’s birthday purely by chance.

He’d honestly assumed that his partner was the type of person to make a big deal of his birthday approaching, to try and garner gifts and attention--not that he was saying that was a bad thing, of course, but with how Yosuke constantly seemed to draw attention to himself (for better or worse), Souji felt that it was a natural conclusion to come to.

Yet Souji had only found out when he overheard Yosuke talking with his father in Junes, the mention of Yosuke’s shift falling on his birthday and Yosuke’s reassurances that he didn’t care--that he didn’t have anything better to do that day anyway, it’s fine, and _really dad I know we’re short-staffed right now I swear I don’t mind_ \--immediately catching Souji’s attention and pulling the corners of his lips down into a pensive frown.

His birthday was one week from today. Why did Yosuke think that no one would want to spend his birthday celebrating with him?

(Souji sincerely hoped it wasn’t his fault--yes, he scheduled his own part-time jobs in advance, and yes he had been scheduled to work at the daycare after school and to tutor at night on that day, but he thought that Yosuke knew by now that he would gladly rearrange his schedule ten times over if Yosuke wanted to spend time with him, _especially_ on a day as important as his birthday.)

(He trusted that Yosuke would do the same for him in a heartbeat, so maybe Souji just wasn’t doing a good enough job of showing that Yosuke was just as important to him as he was to Yosuke.)

Souji briefly considered confronting Yosuke about it, before deciding against it: if Yosuke felt this strongly about hiding his birthday, then approaching him and questioning him would only end up making Yosuke feel guilty. He would just have to take a different approach to doing something special for his best friend’s birthday, then.

With that thought in mind, Souji snuck off before Yosuke could spot him, his mind already working on putting together a plan of action.

* * *

It was surprisingly easy to find Yosuke’s dad without Yosuke any the wiser, though perhaps that was just because Souji knew that Yosuke wasn’t working today.

Thankfully, Yosuke’s father was more than happy to hear that his son had someone that wanted to spend his birthday with him, and agreed with no problem to change the schedule, even going so far as to agree to keep it a secret from Yosuke until the day of so that Souji could surprise him.

That was one problem down. Next was figuring out what to actually _do_ for Yosuke’s birthday.

Unfortunately they couldn’t do all that much, since they had school that day--and as much as Souji cared about his partner, skipping school was out of the question--but he figured that they could at least take a quick trip into Okina, and maybe catch a movie before heading back to have a home-cooked dinner and cake with Nanako.

That was a good plan, simple yet effective. He considered inviting Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji to Okina as well, so they could all celebrate Yosuke’s birthday together, before deciding against it--a group of five going to the movies might be a bit much, plus there was no guarantee that they all would be able to keep the birthday plans a secret from Yosuke for the next week without at least one of them slipping up around him.

Not to mention that the thought of making plans with everyone and keeping Yosuke alone in the dark made Souji’s stomach churn with guilt, even if they would just be planning a surprise for him. He couldn’t do that to his partner, good intentions or not--the last thing he wanted was for Yosuke to get the wrong idea and end up getting upset with them.

So in the end, it was just the most logical decision to keep the celebration between the two of them. Of course, Souji could think of another reason why he would prefer to spend Yosuke’s birthday with just the two of them (and Nanako, of course), but he firmly pushed the thought to the furthest recesses of his mind, knowing that Yosuke wouldn’t even be the slightest bit tolerant of something like that--not after the fit he threw going through Kanji’s dungeon, and his subsequent behavior around Kanji.

It hurt a bit to think about, but he respected Yosuke enough to not want to push him and potentially ruin what was the best friendship Souji had ever had in his entire life. The feelings would fade in time, and if they didn’t… well, he would just learn to deal with it.

In any case, now that Souji had a plan, all that was left was figuring out what sort of gift to get Yosuke for his birthday--which was arguably the most difficult part, as Souji had never once gotten anyone a gift for their birthday before, or at least not for someone that mattered to him as much as Yosuke did. His parents were never big on birthday celebrations, and any “friends” that he’d made over the years were easily appeased with small trinkets or gift cards.

Even if it was a bit sentimental of him, Souji didn’t want to get Yosuke such an impersonal gift. Not after everything they’d been through together, over the past two--almost three--months. It had to be something special: something that would make Yosuke realize that them being _partners_ wasn’t just a one-way street, and that Souji cared enough to want to make him feel important.

The problem was… even if he knew he wanted to get Yosuke something special, he had no idea what that _something special_ should be.

He couldn’t go around asking their friends without giving away the fact that he was trying to get Yosuke a birthday present, and asking Yosuke himself if there was anything in particular that he wanted would be way too obvious--for all the things that Yosuke said and did, he really was sharper than anyone gave him credit for, and Souji had no doubts that Yosuke would immediately put two and two together if Souji so much as hinted at wanting to buy him something.

Should the gift even be something store-bought, though? Maybe making him something would be more personal? Then again, Souji didn’t really know how to make much besides origami or anything that was made in a kitchen, and he couldn’t just give Yosuke _paper cranes_ or _food_ for his birthday--not to mention the fact that he cooked for Yosuke all the time regardless of whether it was his birthday or not, plus he was already planning on making Yosuke dinner and a cake to begin with, so it would feel a bit cheap to say that their dinner was his birthday present.

Maybe something to do with music, then? If he could just get a better look at the headphones Yosuke was always wearing, maybe he could try going into Okina by himself to hunt down a new pair for him. Considering how often he used his headphones, especially when they were fighting in the TV world, having a spare pair couldn’t hurt.

Souji felt like he was on the right track, but at the same time just giving his best friend a pair of headphones still didn’t feel like _enough_ ….

“Big Bro? What’s wrong?”

Souji was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his cousin’s voice, and he sheepishly realized he’d been completely zoned out in the kitchen instead of preparing dinner like he’d meant to do upon arriving home.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something. I’m fine, I promise,” Souji replied with a small, reassuring smile. He hesitated for a moment before crouching down to look Nanako in the eye as he asked, “Can you keep a secret?”

Nanako immediately brightened up in excitement. “A secret? I’m really good at keeping secrets! What is it?”

Souji looked back and forth for show as if scanning the area, despite knowing that it was only him and Nanako at home, before leaning forward and saying in an exaggerated whisper, “I’m planning a surprise for Yosuke’s birthday.”

“It’s Yosuke-nii’s birthday?” Nanako whispered back, her eyes shining. “Are you gonna throw him a party at Junes?”

Souji laughed softly. “I think he would prefer to have his party somewhere a little quieter.”

“Oh…,” Nanako replied, clearly disappointed, before brightening up again as she asked, “Can we have _my_ birthday party at Junes?”

Souji smiled and gently ruffled her hair, his expression softening as she giggled in response. “Of course, as long as your dad’s okay with it.”

“So what are you gonna get Yosuke-nii for his birthday?” Nanako asked after Souji moved his hand off of her head, unwittingly bringing Souji’s mind back to the dilemma at hand.

“That’s what I was trying to figure out…,” Souji replied with a frown, letting out a sigh as he shifted to sit down on the kitchen floor and leaned back against the oven. “I want to get him something special, maybe something to do with music? But I feel like just buying him something isn’t enough….”

Nanako sat down next to him and leaned against him as she looked up at him, prompting a smile from Souji. “What about making something, then?” She brightened up as she added excitedly, “Oh, you could make a birthday song for Yosuke-nii!”

Almost immediately, Souji’s face flooded with color, and he let out a nervous laugh before replying, “That’s… not a bad idea, but I don’t think that’s something I can do. Writing music isn’t easy, and writing lyrics….”

He wasn’t exactly the most expressive person, not even on paper, and he recalled all the times he’d been forced to try and do creative writing or poetry for school only to be teased for sounding like a robot when the teachers made him read his work aloud to the class.

As much as he loved Yosuke’s laughter, he wasn’t entirely sure he could handle Yosuke laughing at him over something like that, even if he knew his partner would never do anything like that with malicious intent.

“I think you’re on the right track, though,” Souji added, not wanting to make Nanako feel bad about her suggestion. “I was thinking more like… a gift that I could actually wrap and give to him on his birthday.”

Nanako hummed in thought, her brows scrunching up in an adorably serious expression that immediately pulled another smile from Souji.

“Oh!” Nanako suddenly perked up as another idea came to her. “What about a friendship bracelet? Some kids in my class were working on some just yesterday! You could make one with a little music charm on it!”

Souji turned the idea over in his head, running through all the possible scenarios of how Yosuke might react: at the very least, it would certainly go over better than giving him actual music as a gift--honestly, that seemed more like something Yosuke would give rather than receive, provided Yosuke actually worked up enough confidence to put to use the musical talent that Souji knew his partner had--though he had a feeling that Yosuke might be a bit too self-conscious to wear something like a friendship bracelet, and the last thing Souji wanted to do was make Yosuke feel guilty or pressured to wear it just because Souji made it for him.

If he made a charm that could go on a necklace, on the other hand… even if Yosuke felt self-conscious about it, he could always just hide it under his shirt, right? He always wore his headphones around his neck too, so it wouldn’t attract as much attention as a bracelet on his wrist in plain sight.

(Plus, if Souji was being honest, he really just liked the idea of Yosuke willingly wearing something that Souji made for him every day--not that he would ever admit something like that aloud, though, and certainly not to Yosuke himself.)

Of course, he would still get Yosuke the new pair of headphones too, but the more he mulled over the idea the more appealing it grew to him, until he found himself rising to his feet with a smile on his face.

“Big Bro?”

Nanako stood up as well, looking up at him in confusion that quickly shifted to a smile of her own as Souji gently put a hand on her head.

“How would you like to take a trip to Junes with me? I’m going to need some materials to make that charm for Yosuke.”

Nanako’s expression lit up as she bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly. “Can we go now?”

Souji laughed softly. “I’m going to need all the time I can get to make Yosuke’s gift as perfect as possible, and it’s early enough that your dad won’t get upset if we go out for a walk together.” With a wry glance at the unprepared food that would probably take way too long for him to make now that they had plans to go out, he added, “We can even pick up something for dinner while we’re there.”

“Yay!”

No sooner had Souji finished cleaning up the kitchen and putting everything away did Nanako grab his hand and eagerly begin tugging him along towards the door, and Souji couldn’t help the fond expression on his face as he followed his younger cousin so they could put on their shoes and head out.

As they made their way out of the house and down the street, with Souji’s hand gently clasping Nanako’s, Nanako tentatively glanced up at Souji and asked, “Did I help?”

Souji’s smile widened the slightest bit as he looked over at Nanako. “You did,” he assured her. “Your idea was perfect, just like you. The perfect idea from the perfect little sister.”

Nanako giggled. “For the perfect Big Bro!” she added, swinging their hands between them.

Souji’s heart swelled, his smile widening even further as he let out a soft laugh of his own.

“Well, with the perfect siblings on the job, I guess that means Yosuke’s gift is going to be perfect too, huh?”

“Yeah!” Nanako grinned up at him as she asked, “Can I help bake the cake, too? I’ve always wanted to try baking a cake!”

“Of course,” Souji replied without hesitation--as if he could ever say no to Nanako. “I’m sure Yosuke will be thrilled to eat a cake that you helped bake, especially for his birthday.”

“Yay! This is gonna be so much fun!”

With Souji’s concerns about planning the perfect day for his partner and finding the perfect gift for him put at ease, he found himself nodding in genuine agreement, excitement slowly taking the place of his previous nerves.

“Yeah, it will.”

* * *

There was something off about Souji, but Yosuke just couldn’t put his finger on it for the life of him.

It wasn’t anything drastic, and he didn’t think it was anything _bad_ either--just that he seemed a bit distracted, though that really wasn’t anything new with how many responsibilities Souji juggled on a daily basis.

Honestly Yosuke had no idea how he did it. He himself could barely handle working at Junes, going to the TV world, and going to school, let alone everything _else_ Souji somehow managed to cram into his own schedule.

Hell, Souji even somehow managed to find time to make lunch for him (and the rest of his friends, on separate occasions) on top of all the other things he busied himself with. Sometimes Yosuke wondered if his partner was even _human_ , with how productive and helpful he was--and with how _good_ he was at everything he did, from schoolwork to housework to fighting in the TV and everything else in between.

Finally, after two days of wondering if maybe he was just imagining things, Yosuke found a physical sign that his concerns hadn’t just been in his head after all.

“Dude, what happened to your hands?” Without thinking, Yosuke grabbed hold of one of Souji’s hands to get a better look as the two of them sat on the school rooftop, causing Souji to drop his chopsticks into his bento box in surprise. “Your fingers are all cut up!”

“It’s nothing,” Souji replied after a few seconds of startled silence, the barest hint of embarrassment on his face as he gently extracted his hand from Yosuke’s hold (causing Yosuke to blush in belated mortification--concerned or not, you don’t just grab a guy’s hand and start inspecting it out of nowhere) and picked his chopsticks back up. “I’ve just been… trying to work on something these past couple of days, but it’s admittedly a bit more difficult than I was expecting.”

Yosuke stared at him in unabashed surprise. “Seriously, partner? You finally found something that can even give _you_ trouble?”

At the very least, this explained why Souji felt off these past few days: if he was frustrated over being unable to do something, then of course he would seem distracted. Even if it was a bit surprising to hear Souji admitting that he was struggling with something, it honestly put Yosuke’s mind at ease as much as it warmed his heart--Souji could have brushed him off and just left it at the assurance that it was nothing, but not only was he honest with Yosuke, he’d also admitted something to him that Yosuke knew (hoped) that Souji wouldn’t feel comfortable admitting to anyone else.

Souji’s embarrassment seemed to grow as he kept his gaze on his bento, giving the slightest shrug of his shoulders as he quietly replied, “I’m not perfect, you know.”

Yosuke gave Souji a gentle, teasing nudge, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. “Well duh, of course you’re not _perfect_ . It’s just not everyday I get the honor of hearing that you’re having trouble with something--usually _I’m_ the clumsy one that gets hurt trying to do stuff, not you,” he replied with a grin, winking as he added, “Or what, am I finally starting to rub off on you, partner?”

Souji chuckled, and Yosuke was inwardly relieved to see the small bits of tension leaving Souji’s body as he met his gaze with a fondly amused smile. “If only I could be that lucky.”

“Dude, you say the weirdest stuff sometimes, I swear,” Yosuke replied, firmly ignoring the heat gathering in his cheeks (and the pleased smile tugging at the corners of his lips) as he gave Souji’s arm a light shove. “Besides, if I was rubbing off on you, you’d be _unlucky_ , not lucky. Or do I need to pull out the laundry list of proof that I’ve got the absolute worst luck ever?” Before his brain could catch up with his mouth, he added, “The only lucky thing that’s ever happened to me was becoming friends with you.”

Souji’s expression softened, gratitude shining clear as day in his gaze as he replied, “I feel the same way, partner. Becoming friends with you was the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me, too.”

Yosuke could feel his face burning all the way to the tips of his ears, and it took all of his willpower to repress the silly grin that threatened to spread across his face even as he gave Souji another light shove. “C’mon man, stop exaggerating.” Before Souji could open his mouth and embarrass him any further, he hastily continued to speak. “Anyway, what have you been working on these past few days that’s got your fingers all cut up like that?”

“It’s a secret,” Souji replied with a smile.

“Seriously? Now you’ve got me even _more_ curious.” Yosuke lightly nudged Souji's side with his elbow. “C’mon partner, you can tell me! I won’t tell anyone, I swear!”

Souji shook his head. “Sorry Yosuke, I told myself I wouldn’t say a word to anyone until it’s done, not even you--but,” he added, upon seeing the beginnings of a dejected pout on Yosuke’s face, “I promise you’ll be the first to see it when it’s done.”

As if his mood hadn’t been two seconds from dropping, Yosuke’s expression immediately brightened back up into a smile. “Weeeell… I _guess_ that’s fine, then,” he replied. His expression sobered slightly as he added, “Seriously though, I’m just messing with you. If you don’t want to show me, you don’t have to--”

“I do,” Souji quickly assured him, the slightest tinge of embarrassment in his expression as he continued, “I was actually already planning on showing you as soon as I finished.”

Yosuke blinked in surprise, Souji’s response catching him completely off-guard. “You… were? Why me, though?”

Souji looked over at him with an expression of genuine confusion. “You’re my partner, Yosuke. Of course I would come to you first for anything.”

Despite Yosuke’s blush having finally died down, it quickly returned with a vengeance from Souji’s genuine response, his throat feeling tight with restrained emotion from the casual, _honest_ reminder that Yosuke was someone special to Souji.

“Ah-- that’s-- I mean, y-yeah, me too-- I would… I’d come to you first for anything, too,” Yosuke stammered out hastily, though no less genuinely.

Of course he would go to Souji first. He would do anything for Souji.

He just, for some reason, hadn’t thought that the feeling was reciprocated--which was ridiculous, he _knew_ it was ridiculous: Souji confided in him more than anyone else (he hoped) even if it wasn’t very often, and he was the only one (as far as he knew) that Souji consistently invited over to his place to hang out outside of group hangouts at the Dojima house, and he always made sure to have Yosuke by his side whenever they went in the TV, and--

Yeah, maybe it was a bit ridiculous for him to be so surprised, but… he couldn’t help it, not when this was the first time Souji had bluntly spelled out his feelings like this for him, instead of letting his actions and gestures do the talking for him.

The sound of the school bell ringing saved Yosuke from sticking his foot in his mouth any further, which was a relief for all of two seconds before he realized that they’d spent the majority of their lunch period talking instead of eating.

With all the skill of a person used to taking the shortest work breaks in existence, Yosuke scarfed down the rest of his food in record time, nearly choking in his haste--but even that couldn’t bring Yosuke’s mood down, not when he felt Souji’s hand on his back and felt him pressing a bottle of water into Yosuke’s hands for him to drink.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m fine,” Yosuke replied as soon as he could take a proper breath, giving Souji a sheepish grin. “Thanks.”

Souji eyed him in a mixture of lingering concern and wry amusement as he nodded in response, turning his attention back to his own food so he could take a couple more bites before wrapping up the half-finished bento, most likely to finish eating it later like a normal person instead of trying to inhale it now.

As Souji rose to his feet so they could start heading back down to class, Yosuke paused, the words that he wanted to say bubbling up in his chest--and yet when he went to open his mouth to speak them, they got caught in his throat, preventing him from saying anything more than, “H-hey, Souji--”

When Souji glanced back at him, giving him his undivided attention, Yosuke felt the words fizzle away until all that was left was an awkward smile on his face as he gathered his stuff and stood up to join Souji.

“Never mind, it’s nothing. C’mon, we’re gonna be late!”

Yosuke wanted to tell Souji that his birthday was just a few days away--and he knew in his heart that Souji would immediately clear his schedule for him with no hesitation, even if his mind tried to tell him the opposite--but he just… couldn’t do it. The thought of making Souji feel obligated to spend time with him weighed on him too heavily, and he knew it would make for a miserable time for them both if Yosuke was stressing over whether Souji was spending his birthday with him because he wanted to, or because Yosuke had put him on the spot and he hadn’t been able to say no.

It was alright, though. Souji’s affirmation that he was someone special to him was the only birthday present that Yosuke needed--and honestly, it was the best present that he’d received in what was probably his entire life, sad to say.

He wasn’t going to ask for anything more than that.

* * *

It took right up until the last day before Yosuke’s birthday, but Souji finally managed to finish everything in time, carefully boxing up and meticulously wrapping each gift before setting them aside in his room. The birthday cake was already in the refrigerator, made with Nanako’s help as promised, and he’d prepped the food for Yosuke’s birthday dinner as well, so all he would have to do after bringing Yosuke back to Inaba from Okina was take it out and put it on the stove for a bit to cook.

Now, all that was left was to carry out his plan, and hope that Yosuke was happy with everything in the end.

Thankfully, having had the foresight to not only approach Yosuke’s father the day after finding out Yosuke’s birthday was coming up to secretly rearrange Yosuke’s schedule, but to also find and approach Yosuke’s mother while Yosuke wasn’t around in order to get her permission for Yosuke to sleep over--as well as to get her help in packing Yosuke an overnight bag for him, which she even joyously offered to bring to the Dojima household herself while Souji and Yosuke were out in Okina--meant that by the time the morning of Yosuke’s birthday came around, there was nothing for him to do but ambush his partner after school and drag him off to enjoy his special day.

Sitting through an entire day of school was, for once in Souji’s life, absolute _torture_ : silly as it was (his parents would be _furious_ with him if they knew he was entertaining such juvenile thoughts and feelings), he was almost too excited to even focus on taking notes, not when he knew that in just a few hours he’d get to enact his very first birthday surprise for his very first best friend. Thankfully, his poker face didn’t fail him, nor did his ability to retain information as he was called on to answer a question in class, and the day slowly but surely passed by until the final bell rang, signaling the end of the school day--and the beginning of Souji’s plan, as he gathered his belongings and rose to his feet in time to catch Yosuke before he could rush off to work.

“I’ll walk with you,” he offered with a small smile--and while Yosuke seemed a bit caught off-guard, he thankfully didn’t turn down Souji’s offer, instead seeming to perk up with a mixture of pleasant surprise and relief.

Now all Souji had to do was wait for Yosuke to get the phone call as they walked, and--

As if on cue, Yosuke’s phone began to ring, and Souji just barely managed to keep a straight face as Yosuke looked at the caller ID in a mixture of confusion and dread.

“Sorry partner, one sec,” Yosuke said to him quickly, before answering the phone with a wary, “Sorry dad, I just got out of school, I’m on my-- wait, what? A change in the-- but no one told me-- seriously? Wait, he did _what?_ ”

When Yosuke’s gaze traveled over to Souji, he couldn’t fight his repressed smile any longer, especially as he saw stunned realization beginning to light up Yosuke’s eyes.

“Uh… y-yeah, that’s… fine, I guess-- I-- thanks, dad, I will. Bye.”

With that, Yosuke hung up and dazedly pocketed his phone, his hand nearly missing his pocket entirely in his stunned stupor.

“Souji, what… _how_ …,” Yosuke began, trailing off as he tried to find his voice from past the lump in his throat.

Souji’s expression softened as he met Yosuke’s gaze, his smile widening the slightest bit as he replied, “Happy birthday, Yosuke.”

Finally, Yosuke let out a quiet, choked-up laugh, his shoulders sagging as he moved a hand to cover his flushed face, only just barely hiding the unshed tears in his eyes. “Partner, you’re just… wow. I can’t believe you _knew_ , and you even went and set all this up….”

“Getting you out of work for the day was just the beginning,” Souji said, putting a hand on Yosuke’s shoulder. “I was thinking we could go hang out in Okina for a while, and then I already set up everything so you could have dinner and sleep over at my place.”

Yosuke’s smile widened into a bright, flustered grin, even as his eyes remained the slightest bit glossy.

“Sounds like the perfect birthday celebration to me, partner. Thank you.”

Souji’s heart lifted, both from Yosuke’s expression and his earnest gratitude, and he couldn’t help his own smile brightening in response.

“No need to thank me, partner.”

After all, Souji mused to himself as he walked towards the train station with a giddily excited Yosuke by his side, he would do anything for Yosuke, anything to make his partner smile.

Even without having seen Yosuke’s reaction to his home-cooked dinner or his handmade presents yet, Souji felt relieved to know that Yosuke’s birthday surprise was officially a success.

* * *

They made it into the city just in time to grab tickets to a movie that apparently Yosuke had been really excited to see--a lucky coincidence, since Souji genuinely hadn’t been sure if any of the movies that were playing would be to Yosuke’s liking--and by the time they left the theater and got back on the train to head over to Souji’s for dinner, Yosuke was still visibly buzzing with excitement.

Yosuke was rambling about the movie--something about special effects, and the soundtrack, and the action scenes--yet even as Souji nodded at appropriate intervals, he found his thoughts wandering, and it was all that he could do to keep his gaze from wandering as well.

In his defense, Yosuke was a naturally good-looking guy, no matter what Yosuke thought about himself and no matter what sort of teasing comments the girls made about him--but seeing Yosuke looking so _ecstatic_ , so _alive_ , made it even harder for Souji to tear his gaze away from his partner, who was practically radiating sunshine with how happy he was.

To think, _Souji_ had been the one to help make him this happy, on such an important day.

(To think, if Souji hadn’t overheard when Yosuke’s birthday was by pure chance, then Yosuke would have been spending today trapped in a place that didn’t appreciate him, with people bothering him and berating him all evening.)

Time passed far too quickly for Souji’s liking, and before he knew it they were already at his doorstep, with Yosuke standing beside him shifting from foot to foot--as if he couldn’t decide whether to be excited or anxious about being essentially doted on for his birthday, with a fun day out, a home-cooked meal, and (though Souji hadn’t made any mention of it yet, to keep things a surprise for just a little bit longer) a birthday cake and presents to look forward to.

Souji wished he could spoil Yosuke like this every day, but he would take what he could get. At least today he had the excuse of Yosuke’s birthday to keep his partner from protesting or getting too worked up over Souji going above and beyond for him.

They hardly had the chance to take two steps into the house before Yosuke was tackled by a pink blur, and Souji’s hands reflexively reaching out to steady him were the only thing stopping Yosuke from falling over as Nanako enthusiastically hugged his waist.

“Happy birthday, Yosuke-nii!!”

Immediately, the startled confusion faded off of Yosuke’s face, replaced quickly with a soft, slightly flustered smile as he laughed and put a hand on top of Nanako’s head to gently ruffle her hair.

“Thanks, Nanako-chan.”

Nanako looked up at him with a bright smile of her own as she asked excitedly, “Did you have fun with Big Bro? Are you having a good birthday?”

“Course I did, I always have fun hanging out with your Big Bro,” Yosuke replied without hesitation, shooting a wink in Souji’s direction--and as if he hadn’t already melted Souji’s heart with that alone, he looked back down at Nanako, his smile widening into a grin as he added, “And I’m having an even better birthday now that I got a special hug from you, Nanako-chan.”

It was a good thing Souji’s poker face was practically flawless. He had a hunch it would be the only thing getting him through the night, if he was already feeling like his heart was about to burst hardly a few minutes into Yosuke coming over.

“Why don’t you two go make yourselves comfortable in the living room?” Souji said, giving Yosuke a small smile when Yosuke glanced over at him. “I’m going to finish cooking dinner.”

“And then cake, right?” Nanako asked excitedly. “I want Yosuke-nii to see our cake!”

“Wait, partner, you’re cooking _and_ you made me a cake?” Yosuke asked in flustered bewilderment--as if Souji surprising him with plans to go to a movie in Okina and to sleep over for the night wasn’t already more than Yosuke could have ever asked for for his birthday.

Souji gently yet firmly ushered him off towards the living room, his expression soft with the barest traces of amusement. “Well, I certainly wasn’t going to invite you to sleep over and _not_ cook for you--and Nanako wanted to try and bake a cake, so you have her to thank for all the hard work that went into that.”

Nanako giggled and beamed up at Yosuke. “I can’t wait for you to try it, Yosuke-nii! I hope you love it!”

Yosuke laughed weakly, feeling almost overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation. “I’m sure I will, Nanako-chan,” he replied, gently ruffling her hair before glancing over at Souji and adding, “Seriously though, partner--you really didn’t have to do all of this, but… thank you.”

“Of course I did. You’re my partner, and it’s your birthday,” Souji replied simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, before heading off to the kitchen before Yosuke could come up with a response that wasn’t just him utterly embarrassing himself by getting ridiculously sappy and emotional.

Instead, all Yosuke could do was follow along behind Nanako as she tugged him further into the living room, feeling dazed and oddly content as he listened to the comfortable sounds of Souji moving around in the kitchen and Nanako talking to him about her favorite TV show.

If his face hurt from how much he was grinning, even-- _especially_ \--as Souji brought in a plateful of freshly-cooked, delicious-smelling food for him to enjoy… well, he supposed it wasn’t entirely a bad feeling.

* * *

As Yosuke had anticipated, the food was incredible as always, as was the cake that Souji brought out--complete with birthday candles, much to Yosuke’s embarrassment and Nanako’s delight.

(At least they didn’t try and sing him happy birthday, though trying to picture Souji singing at all almost made him want to ask them to do it anyway, his embarrassment be damned.)

After blowing out the candles and eating what was probably one too many slices of cake, Yosuke found himself laying on the floor in a state of satiated bliss, feeling only the slightest bit guilty for not helping Souji and Nanako clean up--but they’d insisted that he was a guest and that it was his birthday, so they weren’t going to let him so much as lift a finger.

It was a sweet gesture, and for the umpteenth time today, Yosuke found his heart swelling in gratitude towards these two cousins for slotting him so easily into their lives and their home, as if he’d belonged here all along.

“Yosuke-nii, are you awake?”

“Hm?” Yosuke opened his eyes and sat up, unable to help the smile that spread across his face as he found Nanako sitting next to him. “What’s up, Nanako-chan?”

Nanako fidgeted slightly in nervous hesitance before pulling out a folded up piece of construction paper from behind her back. “Umm… this is for you!” She smiled as she added, “It’s a birthday card! I made it myself.”

“Aww, Nanako-chan, you didn’t have to…,” Yosuke replied, his expression softening as he took the paper from her and unfolded it to find the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOSUKE-NII” carefully scrawled across the top in crayon, with three happy-looking stick figures underneath.

“That’s you in the middle!” Nanako explained brightly, leaning against Yosuke’s side to point at the drawing. “And then there’s me, and there’s Big Bro! Um, I was gonna draw me in the middle with you and Big Bro next to me, but then I drew you in the middle instead, ‘cuz it’s your birthday and you’re special to me and Big Bro!”

Yosuke bit the inside of his cheek to stop the sudden swell of emotion that rushed through him.

He was _not_ going to cry, god damn it, not over a six year old’s birthday card.

“Thank you, Nanako-chan,” he replied softly, speaking around the lump in his throat even as he gave her a genuine smile. “I love it.”

“Really? Yay!” Nanako threw her arms around Yosuke in a hug, which Yosuke reciprocated with a quiet, choked-up laugh. “I bet you’re gonna love Big Bro’s gift too!”

Yosuke blinked. “Wait-- wasn’t dinner and the cake my gift?”

Nanako giggled. “Of course not, silly! Dinner is dinner, and cake is cake! Those aren’t gifts, they’re food!”

Wisely holding his tongue (and pushing aside memories of his birthday passing each year with nothing more than a Junes cake and a store-bought card with some money), Yosuke chuckled weakly, but wasn’t given a chance to try and come up with a response beyond that before he felt a hand coming to rest on top of his head.

“Your gift’s upstairs, in my room,” Souji said, once Yosuke turned to look up at him. “So’s your overnight bag, if you want to get changed and make yourself comfortable.”

“Partner, you didn’t have to--”

Yosuke wasn’t even given the chance to finish his protest before Souji turned and started walking away towards the stairs.

“ _Partner!_ ” Yosuke tried again, the slightest hint of an embarrassed whine creeping into his tone as his face began to heat up. “I’m serious! This is way too much--”

Souji hardly even glanced back at him as he replied, “Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of me going upstairs to take out your presents.”

“Wait, _presents?_ Like _plural?_ Souji, get back here--!!”

Yosuke rose to his feet, oblivious to Nanako’s giggles as she watched him chase Souji over to the staircase, the two of them disappearing upstairs.

* * *

Souji had hardly a minute to pull out Yosuke’s gifts before the birthday boy himself burst into the room, his face bright red in clear embarrassment.

“You’d better not have seriously gotten me more than one gift,” Yosuke said weakly, though it was a moot threat when the two wrapped presents were clearly in view.

Souji shrugged with a hint of a smile. “Well, technically I only _got_ you one gift, since I made the other one myself.”

“Made--!!” Yosuke’s eyes widened in realization. “Wait, hold on, so that thing you were working on--”

“I told you that I was planning on showing it to you first, didn’t I?” Souji replied, his smile dying down sheepishly as he added, “Though… I had to bring it to Daidara to get his help finishing it off, and Nanako was curious and I kind of… wanted a second opinion, so… sorry, I guess that doesn’t really count as showing you first.”

Yosuke let out a soft, incredulous laugh. “Dude, are you kidding? You really think I’m gonna complain, knowing you went out of your way to _make_ me something?”

“Well, don’t speak too soon, you haven’t seen it yet,” Souji responded with a hint of a nervous smile as he turned to grab the smaller of the two packages, the barest hint of a blush heating up his cheeks as he held it out for Yosuke to take. “If you don’t like it--”

“Partner,” Yosuke immediately cut him off with a smile as he took the gift and began unwrapping it, “I already love it, and I haven’t even _seen_ it yet.”

Souji tried and failed to keep his blush from darkening, his heart jerking in startled surprise simply from hearing the word _love_ leaving Yosuke’s lips and directed at him so easily.

Maybe this was a bad idea, if Yosuke thought his gift was stupid or odd then he’d end up ruining the best friendship he’d ever had all because he was being weirdly sentimental--

Souji tensed as he heard Yosuke take a sharp intake of breath, watching as he carefully took out the silver necklace from the unwrapped box so he could inspect the two charms hanging off of it.

“I… know you like music, but I’m not really very… musically-inclined, and I don’t know which CDs you already have, and a gift card felt too impersonal, so-- I was going to make just the headphones pendant, but then I wasn’t sure if that would look too weird on a necklace, so I made a musical note, but I wasn’t sure if that was too simple, so I… left them both for you to choose which one you want to wear on the necklace--if you even want to, of course.” The longer Yosuke remained silent for, the more Souji found himself nervously rambling for--which wasn’t _like_ him, Souji _never_ rambled, but he hadn’t realized how nerve-wracking it was to give someone a gift that you’d poured your energy and your _heart_ into making until now. “If you’d rather not wear it at all that’s fine, too--you could put them on your keys instead, if you even want to use them-- you don’t have to though, there’s no obligation--”

“You seriously… made this? For me?”

Souji’s mouth immediately snapped shut as Yosuke’s soft, awed voice broke through his ramblings, and he gave a sharp, jerky nod in response.

Yosuke… didn’t _seem_ like he was reacting negatively, so… that was a good sign, right?

There was another stretch of silence, in which Yosuke’s fingers gently ran along each charm, lingering on the details that Souji had painstakingly carved into the tiny replica of Yosuke’s headphones--before Yosuke finally turned his gaze over to Souji, who was surprised to see that his eyes were clouded over with unshed tears.

“No one’s ever…,” Yosuke trailed off for a moment, before continuing softly. “Why? You didn’t have to go through all this trouble, you already did more than enough--”

“Yosuke,” Souji gently cut him off, even as he broke Yosuke’s gaze to glance away in self-conscious embarrassment, “I’m… not exactly the best at expressing myself. I know I can be a bit difficult to read, and I know that I need to work on being more open with people, but… that’s exactly why I had to do all of this.” He forced himself to look back over at Yosuke as he continued, “I wanted to make it clear just how much you mean to me. You’re my best friend, my _partner_ \--and I know I haven’t done a good job of making you feel as important to me as I am to you, but I want to change that. I just… hope this is enough of a first step.”

Yosuke let out a quiet, choked-up laugh as he moved his free hand to cover his face. “Dammit partner… I told myself I wasn’t going to cry….”

Souji’s heart dropped in alarm at the mention of crying, but he was hardly given a chance to so much as open his mouth before Yosuke continued to speak.

“Just… let me do this, and don’t say anything, please.”

With that, Yosuke stepped forward and threw his arms around Souji, burying his face against Souji’s shoulder as he clung to him and let out a soft, muffled “ _thank you_ ”.

Souji’s concern immediately faded into a soft, affectionate look as he wrapped his arms around Yosuke in return--and though he knew Yosuke told him not to say anything, there was still one thing that Souji had to give voice to before the moment passed.

“I should be the one thanking you,” Souji murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve never… had a friend like you. A partner. Someone I could trust and rely on without question. So… thank you. Thank you for being the best friend I’ve ever had, and… thank you for being born.”

Yosuke’s fist lightly thumped against Souji’s back as he choked out, “I told you not to say anything, dammit….”

Yet despite his protest, Souji knew Yosuke wasn’t mad--not when he felt Yosuke’s fist unclench and move to grip the back of his shirt, as a quiet, hitched sob met his ears.

“You,” Yosuke continued once he managed to find his voice again, tight with restrained emotion as it was, “are such a sap. Since when were you this big of a sap?”

Souji chuckled, absentmindedly rubbing circles against Yosuke’s back and smiling as he felt Yosuke relaxing against him. “Since I found out that my partner’s birthday was coming up, apparently.” He hesitated for a moment before tentatively adding, “Does that… bother you?”

“What? Why would it bother me?”

Yosuke sounded so bewildered by the question, even in his emotional state, that Souji couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh in response.

“I just wanted to be sure.”

Yosuke was silent for a moment before letting out a quiet huff of laughter, and the fond affection in Yosuke’s tone immediately seized Souji’s chest and sent his heart into overdrive as he replied, “You’re so weird… of course I’m not bothered. This--” he cut off briefly, before continuing softly, “this means the world to me, seriously.”

“Now who’s being a sap?” Souji teased lightly, chuckling as he heard Yosuke’s embarrassed grumbling as he hit his fist against Souji’s back once more in response.

“Jerk.”

Apparently reaching the limit of how much openly emotional conversation he could handle, Yosuke pulled out of the hug and hastily turned away before Souji could see anything more than a flash of bright red coloring Yosuke’s cheeks.

“I, uh-- b-bathroom, I’ll… be right back.”

With that, Yosuke quickly rushed out of the room, no doubt to compose himself--which was perfectly fine, since Souji needed a minute himself in order to get his heart rate back down to something close to normal.

By the time Yosuke returned, his face looking only slightly splotchy and the redness almost entirely gone from his eyes, Souji had (thankfully) managed to rein in his own embarrassment--yet his heart still skipped a beat before he could stop it as he caught sight of the silver necklace hanging around Yosuke’s neck.

He also apparently couldn’t stop the silly smile from spreading across his face at the sight, if Yosuke’s sudden blush was anything to go by.

“A-anyway, what’s the other box?” Yosuke asked, clearly trying to shift Souji’s attention away from him if only for a moment.

Deciding to spare Yosuke, Souji let himself go along with the change in subject as he turned his gaze down to the box in question. “Well, I wasn’t really sure if you’d like the necklace, so I bought a backup gift too--but I guess now it’s just a second gift,” he added with a hint of amusement as he picked up the box and handed it to Yosuke.

“Dude, this is seriously way too m-- _holy shit_.”

Yosuke dropped the wrapping paper after tearing it off of the box, and nearly dropped the box itself in his surprise before quickly scrambling to grab hold of it.

“I hope those are the right ones…,” Souji spoke up nervously, after a minute of Yosuke staring at the box. “When I went to the music store in Okina, they didn’t have the same model that you have now, but they said these would be better, so--”

“Dude, these are the _newest model_ of the headphones I use,” Yosuke cut him off incredulously. “I’d been wanting to get these since they first came out, but I didn’t have nearly enough money… how did you--wait, _please_ don’t tell me you bought these at full price.”

“Was I… not supposed to?” Souji asked, looking so genuinely lost that Yosuke nearly started laughing despite his state of flustered shock.

“I hope you know that I’m getting you back for all of this for your birthday,” Yosuke finally replied, after mentally debating for a good few minutes on whether or not he could even bring himself to accept such an expensive gift on top of everything else Souji had already given him--but in the end, there was no way he could turn it down, not without giving Souji the wrong idea and hurting his feelings.

So even if Yosuke felt like he didn’t deserve all of this… if _Souji_ thought he deserved it, then his self-deprecating brain would just have to suck it up, because Souji’s opinion was what mattered most to him in the end.

“Wait,” Yosuke added after another moment of thought, “when _is_ your birthday, anyway?”

Souji, clearly relieved that both of his gifts had been well-received, allowed the corner of his lip to quirk upward in a playful smirk as he replied, “You’ll have to put your own detective skills to the test to figure that out. It’s only fair, since you never technically told me when _your_ birthday was.”

Yosuke groaned in pretend exasperation. “ _Fine_ , fine. Just you wait though, partner.” He met Souji’s gaze in challenge, a grin quickly working its way onto his face. “I’m going to figure out when it is, and give you the biggest birthday surprise of your life!”

“Will it really be a surprise if you’re telling me that you’re planning on surprising me, though?” Souji quipped with a raised eyebrow, just barely stopping himself from laughing as Yosuke’s confident grin deflated into a petulant frown.

“Well… okay, I guess not--but you still won’t have any idea _what_ I’m planning, so that still counts as a surprise!”

“I’m looking forward to it already, then,” Souji replied, his expression softening into a sincere look that had Yosuke quickly blushing and glancing away in embarrassment, even as a smile quickly worked its way back onto his face.

“Good.”

Too flustered to bring himself to look back at Souji, Yosuke instead turned his focus to carefully putting the box with his brand new headphones and the empty jewelry box into his overnight bag and pulling out his pajamas--and thankfully, Souji decided to spare him any more teasing (or any more sappy comments, Yosuke wasn’t sure which was worse at this point) as he began gathering the discarded wrapping paper to throw out downstairs.

“I’ll go get the spare futon,” Souji said over his shoulder as he went to leave the room with the wrapping paper in hand, “and then we can do whatever you’d like for the rest of the night.”

“Whatever I want, huh? You’re spoiling me, partner,” Yosuke teased.

Souji smiled. “Of course I am, it’s your birthday.”

Before Yosuke could formulate a response to Souji’s unexpected, genuine declaration that wasn’t just more flustered stammering, Souji had already left the room, and Yosuke waited another few seconds before finally letting out his embarrassment in the form of one long sigh.

Yet even as all the breath left his body and all the blood continued to gather in his cheeks, Yosuke couldn’t help the bright grin that tugged at the corners of his lips, nor the swelling of his heart in his chest as he unconsciously reached up to grab the handmade pendants hanging around his neck.

There were no words that could possibly describe how grateful he was to Souji--for everything, but for today especially. Never could Yosuke remember experiencing a birthday where someone went so far above and beyond, all for him.

He could only hope that his thanks, and his tentative plans to celebrate Souji’s own birthday, would be enough to express his gratitude towards Souji for being the best friend--the best _partner_ \--that he’d ever had.


	4. Childhood Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not entirely happy with how this one came out tbh, but after writing the huge birthday chapter I kind of got a bit burnt out lmao;; Hopefully this chapter is at least decent enough, though ;u;

With all the moving around that Souji did in his lifetime, it was impossible to remember every last person that had promised to stay in touch, every last person that had promised to write or text or call before fading away into obscurity as he never heard from them again.

It just became easier, over time, to avoid forming pointless bonds altogether.

The only exception to the rule was one single friend that had gone above and beyond to keep in touch with him, ever since the very first time his parents had uprooted his entire life back in first grade: since they were both too young to have cell phones, they would mail letters scribbled in crayon and colored pencils, exchanging stories about all the things Souji was missing in his old school and all the new things Souji was experiencing in his new town.

The letters stopped coming after the second move, and it only hit Souji how lonely he really was when he found himself watching for the mailman each day, hoping in vain for an envelope that would never appear.

By the time he reached his first year of middle school, after more moves than he could be bothered to keep track of, he’d put the thought of his first and closest friend out of his mind--until the unthinkable happened.

He’d only checked the mailbox for his parents’ sake, to bring whatever bills and other important mail came in for his parents inside. He wasn’t even going to go through the envelopes, having long since learned his lesson to not get his hopes up--but there was a single envelope poking out of the pile that immediately caught Souji’s eye.

It was bright orange.

There was only one person that ever used bright orange envelopes, in all the years that Souji had checked the mail for his parents.

With shaking hands, he pulled out the envelope, and was immediately grateful that his parents were still at work. He didn’t even want to think about how he would explain suddenly breaking down in tears as he stared down at an envelope to his parents.

Souji would recognize that return address anywhere. Would recognize that handwriting anywhere. Would recognize that  _ name _ anywhere.

He just barely managed to keep himself from tearing the envelope open, not wanting to risk ripping whatever was inside by accident--which ended up being a good call, as the thick, multi-paged folded-up letter inside was tightly packed into the envelope, and would have no doubt gotten damaged if Souji hadn’t been careful.

For a moment, doubt and fear seized Souji. Why was this letter so many more pages than the others that they’d exchanged? And why was he getting a letter  _ now _ , after years of not getting any?

Swallowing his nerves and bracing himself, Souji slowly unfolded the letter, his heart lifting in relief as he read the contents: not only had his oldest friend still been thinking of him this whole time, but apparently the only reason Souji hadn’t been receiving any letters was because he’d misremembered Souji’s new address and had been sending them to the wrong house this whole time--and by the time he’d figured out the mistake, Souji had already moved again, making it difficult to track him down.

Difficult, yet apparently not impossible.

There was really a person out there who cared enough about Souji to keep trying for  _ years _ to track him down, just to get in contact with him again. God, if only they lived closer, if only they could properly  _ speak _ to one another instead of just writing letters back and forth--

The letter continued on to summarize all the things that had happened in the past few years, before ending with--to Souji’s utter delight--a phone number and email address, and a request for Souji to get back to him as quickly as possible, even if it was just to tell him that he wasn’t interested in being friends anymore.

As if Souji could ever feel that way towards him.

Despite Souji’s reluctance to form friendships with anyone after being uprooted and moved around so many times over the course of his life, this was one friend that he could never-- _ would _ never--let go of, for as long as he still wanted to be friends with Souji.

So he wasted no time in getting out the cell phone that his parents had bought him just a few months ago (as a gift for his excellent grades, or so they said--though Souji knew it was really just a way for them to keep track of him without needing to pull themselves away from their jobs any more than they had to) and texting the phone number on the letter, sending an email as well just to make sure that he got through to his best friend.

As soon as his phone lit up with a reply, so too did Souji’s expression: the corners of his lips turned upward into the brightest smile he’d worn in years as he hastily began typing a response in return, minutes turning into hours as the two friends picked up exactly where they’d left off, as if no time had passed between them at all.

* * *

Middle school came and went, and high school was much the same until the very beginning of Souji’s second year.

While his parents were normally content to leave Souji to take care of himself while they worked, their business was taking them out of Japan for the next year, and--though Souji had essentially raised himself by this point--they didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone for so long.

Which meant that Souji had to, once again, pack up his entire life to go move someplace new. At least he’d learned to compress his “life” into just a single box and a duffel bag over the years, so packing wasn’t much of an issue.

Ironically, he wasn’t the only one being forced to move to some no-name town in the middle of nowhere--his best friend had just been lamenting to him for the past few months how his parents had done just the same thing to him.

Wouldn’t it be funny if Souji ended up moving to the same town as him?

It was a nice dream, but the world wasn’t that small, nor did such convenient coincidences ever happen in his life.

Oh well.

At least they could spend the year suffering in solidarity over texts and phone calls, if nothing else.

* * *

Apparently, the world really  _ was _ that small, after all--and as Souji met Yosuke’s shocked gaze from the front of the classroom, an empty seat directly in front of him as if Yosuke had saved it just for him, he couldn’t help but get the feeling that their unexpected reunion was only the tip of the iceberg for what this year had in store for them.


	5. “Don’t ever do that again!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have it in the tags, but just as a heads up, this chapter contains spoilers for November!

For the past few months, beginning with their very first trip into the TV world and every subsequent visit following that, Souji had been nothing less than the perfect leader: he was sharp, level-headed, and had an incredible ability to split his focus between giving orders and taking action in battle. It was no lie that they wouldn’t have made it nearly as far in all of the tough fights that they’d gone through without Souji’s guidance.

Which made it all the more jarring to see Souji’s reckless behavior and careless mistakes now.

It was clear from the dark circles under Souji’s bloodshot eyes that he was getting little--if any--sleep with his uncle in the hospital and Nanako trapped in the TV world, not that anyone could blame him for feeling so distressed and panicked. All of the previous kidnappings had been nerve wracking, sure, but this… this was  _ personal _ . This was Souji’s  _ family _ , someone that Souji adored with every fiber of his being (and that everyone else adored as well, the entire group having unofficially adopted Nanako as their younger sister over the course of the year), so they genuinely could sympathize with how Souji was feeling, even if they acknowledged that their own grief couldn’t possibly come anywhere close to what Souji must have been going through.

At the same time, however, they couldn’t just stand by and watch Souji continuously throw himself head-first into battle without any regard for his own safety.

He was like a man possessed, cutting down Shadows and flipping through Personas faster than even Rise could keep up with, so it was only a matter of time before Souji tripped up and ended up blindsided in his fugue-like state.

“ _ Senpai, wait! Don’t switch to that Persona!! _ ”

Rise’s warning came too late for Souji, but thankfully not for Yosuke: his feet propelled him towards Souji faster than his mind could catch up with his actions, roughly shoving him out of the way of a  _ Hamaon _ \--and he had about a second to process Souji’s stunned expression shifting to panic before an agonizing pain shot through him, sending him crumpling to the ground as his vision went black.

* * *

Yosuke let out a quiet, pained groan as he returned to consciousness, feeling the cool healing power of a  _ Samarecarm _ washing over him and easing him back into the land of the living.

God, no matter how many times it happened, getting hit by instant-kill attacks  _ sucked _ . It was even more agonizing than getting hit by electric attacks--and considering how often he’d gotten painfully knocked on his ass by powerful  _ Zio _ spells over the course of the year, that was saying something.

“Yosuke? Yosuke, are you alright?!”

Forcing his eyes open and blinking a few times to clear his vision, Yosuke found Souji crouched down and hovering over him with a panicked look on his face--and while his partner’s concern wasn’t surprising, said concern being written all over Souji’s face completely caught Yosuke off-guard.

Souji was  _ never _ this easy to read. Hell, Yosuke was probably the only person in Inaba who could properly read Souji, and even  _ he _ struggled sometimes to pin down the finer nuances of Souji’s subtle expressions.

It wasn’t even like this was the first time he’d gotten hit by one of those instant-kill attacks, either, so what was Souji’s deal?

“Dude, relax, I’m fine!” Yosuke replied, mustering up a grin as he sat up. “It’s not a big deal--”

“ _ Not a big deal? _ ” Souji repeated, his voice so uncharacteristically forceful that it made Yosuke flinch slightly in startled shock. “You--”

He paused, his voice catching, before his shoulders suddenly slumped as whatever anger had been coursing through him abruptly faded away.

“It was my fault,” Souji continued quietly, his voice tight with restrained emotion. “I wasn’t paying enough attention. You shouldn’t have had to take that hit for me.”

“Partner, seriously, it’s  _ fine _ ,” Yosuke tried again, this time a bit more seriously. “None of us want anything to happen to you--”

“And I don’t want anything to happen to any of you!” Souji replied sharply, his head dropping as he lowered himself to his knees next to Yosuke.

“Please…,” Souji continued, breathing each word out desperately, “please don’t ever do that again--I can’t lose you, I can’t lose anyone else,  _ please _ ….”

Yosuke’s heart dropped as everything suddenly clicked, and he couldn’t bring himself to care if the rest of the team was watching--he wasn’t going to just sit here while his partner was suffering.

“Souji,” Yosuke began, shifting onto his knees and moving closer to Souji so he could pull him into a tight hug, “you’re not going to lose  _ anyone _ . I’m fine, everyone else is fine, Dojima-san will recover soon, and we’re going to save Nanako-chan. You didn’t lose anyone. We won’t  _ let _ you lose anyone.”

Souji let out a quiet, shuddering breath as he slumped against Yosuke, and even as Yosuke continued to hold him, he inwardly berated himself for not doing a better job of helping his partner through all of this.

He knew Souji had been going through a difficult time, but… Souji was always so good at covering it up and acting like he was alright that Yosuke had genuinely thought he didn’t need anyone’s help.

Apparently he’d been dead wrong, though--and even if it was a bit late, Yosuke swore he wasn’t going to let Souji suffer in silence any more.

“Let’s call it a day,” Yosuke suggested softly. “You need some rest, partner.”

“But… Nanako--”

“--isn’t going anywhere,” Yosuke cut Souji off firmly, though he kept his expression gentle as he pulled out of the hug to look Souji in the eye, his hands moving to grip Souji by the shoulders. “You don’t want anyone else to end up getting hurt, right?” When Souji shook his head, Yosuke gave him a small smile and continued, “Then let’s get you home so you can get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll come back tomorrow, fresh and ready to kick Namatame’s ass and bring Nanako-chan home. Okay?”

For a moment, it looked like Souji was going to protest--but one more look from Yosuke seemed to ease whatever fight was left in him away, causing his shoulders to slump under Yosuke’s hold as he let out a sigh.

“… Okay.”

A relieved smile briefly flitted across Yosuke’s face as he rose to his feet and offered Souji a hand. “Good. Let’s go, partner.”

As soon as Souji reached out to grasp Yosuke’s hand, Yosuke helped him up to his feet with a firm yet careful tug--and if Souji continued to hold onto his hand for support as he forced himself to leave the TV world (leave  _ Nanako _ ) behind for one more day…

No one was about to say anything, least of all Yosuke himself.


	6. Holding Your Hair Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to get a little creative with this prompt, since neither of them really have enough hair to hold back lmao;; I think it came out pretty cute in the end, though ;u;

It took three irritated huffs of breath before Yosuke finally looked up from his textbook, curiosity winning out over his need to cram for midterms as he wondered what could possibly be giving Souji Seta--the smartest guy Yosuke knew, and probably the smartest guy in the entirety of Yasogami High--enough trouble for him to be actually vocalizing his frustration.

As it turned out, the source of the problem wasn’t something in Souji’s textbook--nor was it anything to do with school at all, for that matter.

“Dude,” Yosuke spoke up, after watching in a mixture of surprise and amusement as Souji kept trying and failing to brush his hair out of his eyes, “when was the last time you got a haircut?”

Souji looked up at him with a startled expression that quickly faded into embarrassment as realization set in. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“That wasn’t my question,” Yosuke replied with a roll of his eyes, leaning over slightly to teasingly tug at Souji’s overgrown bangs and grinning as Souji swatted his hand away. “Y’know, if you have a pair of scissors--”

“Yosuke, I trust you with my life, but I am  _ not _ letting you cut my hair.”

“So your hair’s more important than your life, then?” Yosuke replied wryly, more amused than offended by his offer being shot down so quickly.

Souji fixed him with a flat stare that only served to make it harder for Yosuke to restrain his laughter, and finally Souji cracked as well, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips against his will.

“Don’t you have studying to do?” Souji replied, in the world’s poorest attempt at changing the subject.

Yosuke hummed, mischief shining in his eyes as he rose up to his feet. “Actually, I think I’m gonna go grab a drink. You want anything while I’m downstairs?”

Though Souji was clearly suspicious, he shook his head, and Yosuke very nearly found himself laughing again as he saw a flash of irritation pass across Souji’s face as Souji’s bangs fell back into his eyes from the movement.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

* * *

It took a bit longer than it should have for Yosuke to return, which would have set Souji on his guard had he not lost track of time as he returned his attention to his textbook. Even when Yosuke re-entered the room, Souji didn’t so much as glance up, his focus split between using one hand to brush his bangs aside and the other to jot down notes from his textbook onto a piece of paper to quiz himself and Yosuke on later.

Souji’s attention was only pulled away from his studies when he felt someone hovering in his personal space, and he barely had the chance to look up before he found Yosuke’s hands in his hair and--

Huh. He could see now.

Blinking in confusion, Souji reached up to the top of his head, embarrassment quickly coloring his cheeks as he felt what he could only assume was one of Nanako’s hair clips holding back his hair.

“Looks like just one clip was enough to do the job, huh.” Yosuke pulled back to observe Souji with an impish grin, shooting him a wink as he added, “It’s a good look on you, partner.”

Rolling his eyes, Souji was about to thank Yosuke--regardless of his embarrassment, and regardless of Yosuke’s teasing--when he caught sight of the other, unused hair clip in Yosuke’s hand.

Yosuke didn’t seem to suspect a thing as Souji snuck a hand out towards him, while Yosuke was distracted trying to get out his phone to take a picture of Souji--and he nearly laughed as Yosuke let out a startled yelp when Souji snatched the hair clip from Yosuke’s loose grip and slid it into Yosuke’s hair in one smooth movement.

“There. Now we match,” Souji said with a playfully innocent--yet genuinely satisfied--smile, thoroughly enjoying Yosuke gaping at him in stunned embarrassment.

Finally, Yosuke snapped out of it with a bemused shake of his head, meeting Souji’s gaze wryly with only the slightest hint of embarrassment still coloring his cheeks. “You’re so weird, partner, I swear.”

Souji raised an eyebrow. “Says the person who stole hair clips from a six year old girl to tease me.”

“I didn’t  _ steal _ them, I borrowed them with her permission. I wouldn’t steal from Nanako-chan,” Yosuke replied with a huff. “Seriously, is that the thanks I get for helping out my partner?”

Souji eyed him for a moment longer before chuckling quietly, his expression fondly amused as he replied, “You’re right. Thank you, partner.”

“Uh--” Yosuke blinked, his blush coming back full-force as Souji’s genuine thanks caught him completely off-guard. “I-I mean, I was kinda joking, but… you’re welcome?”

The longer Souji continued to observe Yosuke with a soft smile, the more flustered Yosuke grew, until he found himself loudly blurting out, “Studying!! We’re-- we’re supposed to be studying! Let’s-- we need to do that! Like,  _ now! _ ”

Deciding to show his embarrassed partner some mercy, Souji returned his attention back to his textbook with one last, quiet chuckle.

If Yosuke’s gaze continuously flitted over to him as they went through each subject together, one at a time over the course of the rest of the night… for the sake of Yosuke’s pride, Souji would just pretend not to notice.


	7. Formal Wear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super short chapter this time... my brain drew the biggest blank trying to come up with something for this prompt, for some reason ;_; I can at least promise that the rest will definitely be longer than this one lol;;

“Do we seriously have to dress up like this, partner?”

Souji glanced up from fixing his tie to find Yosuke frowning down at his suit, plucking at the collar with an expression of discomfort.

“To be fair, I  _ did _ warn you that this party was going to be very stuffy,” Souji replied with a mixture of humor and the slightest hint of guilt, moving over to Yosuke’s side and lightly swatting Yosuke’s hands away from his collar so he could straighten it out for him. “You’re the one that offered to come with me.”

“Well  _ duh _ , of course I did! I wasn’t gonna let you suffer through this all on your own,” Yosuke replied, shooting Souji a smile and a wink. “What else are partners for, right?”

“Right,” Souji agreed, oblivious to the light blush that worked its way onto Yosuke’s face as he turned his focus from straightening Yosuke’s collar to fixing Yosuke’s tie. “I just hope you’re not going to regret it once we’re there. You know you can’t bring your headphones with you, right?”

Yosuke let out a long sigh. “I know, I know--I’ll be fine, partner, I promise.” With a teasing grin, he added, “There’s plenty of other ways to keep myself entertained, anyway.”

“You can’t play any pranks on the other guests for your amusement, either,” Souji responded without batting an eye, just barely repressing the amused laugh that threatened to slip out as Yosuke visibly deflated.

“Fiiiine, fine, killjoy.”

Souji pulled back enough to admire his handiwork--and to admire Yosuke dressed to the nines in general, his suit form-fitting in all the right places--before meeting Yosuke’s gaze with a small smile.

“As long as we have each other to talk to, I think we’ll be able to get through the night just fine. Don’t you?”

Though Yosuke wasn’t entirely looking forward to a night filled with social elites and important businesspeople (where he knew he would be under careful scrutiny for the entire event, simply by virtue of accompanying Souji without actually belonging there), he still found it easy for a genuine smile to spread across his face in return, his heart swelling with the simple acknowledgement that all Souji needed was for Yosuke to be by his side, supporting him as always.

“Yeah, you’re right.” His smile widened into a grin as he swung an arm around Souji’s shoulders. “Now let’s get this show on the road, partner!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What kind of party are they going to? Who knows, I didn't think that far ahead lol ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm guessing something that Souji's parents are dragging him to, but it could be any sort of fancy event that Yosuke's going along for the ride with, both to bail Souji out and to get some free food lmao


	8. Hair Petting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe we're already at the halfway point for these prompts omg... just 8 more to go after this!
> 
> This one was a fun one to write, mainly because I'm weak for soft hair petting ;u; ~~Plus I just love writing Yosuke as a flustered mess asdkfj~~

Given how Yosuke had known Souji for almost a full year now, you would think that he would have learned to expect the random bursts of weird quirks that would sometimes surface from his taciturn partner.

Yet when Souji reached out without warning and ran his fingers through Yosuke’s hair, he couldn’t help but yelp and jump slightly in response, his face turning bright red in startled embarrassment.

“Hm,” Souji said with a curious expression, as if he hadn’t just given Yosuke a mini heart attack out of nowhere. “It’s softer than it looks.”

Even Yosuke, who considered himself fluent in Souji-speak, couldn’t always follow Souji’s train of thought--but thankfully, Souji seemed to pick up on his bewildered confusion as he retracted his hand with a hint of a sheepish smile.

“Your hair,” Souji explained. “I’ve been curious for a while now. It’s always styled the same, but it doesn’t look like you use a lot of gel.”

Trust Souji to find something so random to fixate on--not that Yosuke  _ minded _ , of course, but sometimes he really wished his partner would give him some warning before deciding to startle Yosuke’s heart into overdrive.

At least he’d chosen a private place to suddenly do something like this. Yosuke was pretty sure he would’ve died on the spot if Souji had put his hands near Yosuke’s head anywhere outside of the safety and privacy of Souji’s bedroom, where no one could see (or gossip about) either of them.

“It’s… kinda natural? Sorta?” Yosuke reached up to toy with a lock of hair, suddenly feeling self-conscious under Souji’s gaze. “If I let it air dry it just kinda ends up like this, and I gel it a bit to make sure it doesn’t get any crazier.”

“It looks good,” Souji replied, as if it was the most natural thing to compliment your friend on a hairstyle that you’ve seen them with for the past ten months straight.

God, Souji was so  _ weird _ sometimes.

(And maybe Yosuke was a bit weird as well, considering how he felt himself smiling in response.)

“Better than your bowl cut, at least,” Yosuke teased, laughing as Souji shot him a mildly affronted look.

“There’s nothing wrong with my hair, or with bowl cuts.”

Yosuke raised an eyebrow with a wry smile. “Dude, seriously, only you could pull off that look.”

Instead of laughing or waving off Yosuke’s comment, Souji instead hummed thoughtfully as he eyed Yosuke--and before Yosuke could so much as open his mouth to ask Souji what he was thinking about, there were suddenly two hands on his head, gently smoothing down his hair.

Yosuke was almost positive he was about to pass out from every last drop of blood in his body relocating to his face in record time.

He tried to ask Souji what he was doing, but when all that left his mouth was a quiet squeak, he hastily clamped his mouth shut and bit his tongue for good measure.

What the hell was  _ wrong _ with him? Sure, this was a bit…  _ more _ contact than they usually established, but--

Actually, now that he thought about it, this was probably the most contact that Souji had ever initiated with him, wasn’t it? Yosuke was usually the one that leaned in with an arm around Souji’s shoulder, or with his hands on Souji’s back or shoulders shepherding his guileless partner around, or reaching out to Souji for a handshake or helping him to his feet or for a celebratory high-five.

Not that Yosuke could think very coherently at the moment, but as far as he could remember, the only two times that Souji had ever been the one to reach out to him were when Souji had offered his hand to Yosuke after Yosuke’s Shadow had been defeated, and that one cold, dark night in November, when Souji had clung to him desperately as he sobbed his heart out, in the first and only show of raw emotion that Yosuke had ever seen from his normally reserved partner.

Yet here Souji was, with his fingers running through Yosuke’s hair like it was the most natural thing in the world, watching him with a small smile on his face that seemed both intrigued and amused.

When Souji’s hands finally moved away from his head, it took all of Yosuke’s willpower to stifle the whine that slipped out into a soft whimper that Yosuke prayed to every god in existence Souji didn’t hear.

“Like I thought,” Souji said with a satisfied smile. “You would look just as good.”

It took a moment for Yosuke’s flustered, flatlining brain to remember what they had initially been talking about and what Souji meant--but once it clicked, Yosuke’s hands flew up to his head only to find, to his mortification, that Souji had smoothed down his hair as much as possible, to give something close to the illusion of a similar hairstyle as Souji’s.

“ _ Dude! _ ” Yosuke balked as Souji blatantly laughed at him, even if Souji was polite enough to muffle the sound behind his hand. He hastily reached up and messed up his hair, trying to get it somewhat back to normal--there was no way in  _ hell _ he was stepping foot outside of Souji’s bedroom with his hair plastered to either side of his face.

“Shame,” Souji said, his tone obviously trying for disappointed yet sounding far too amused, especially coupled with the barely-repressed smile on his face. “We could’ve matched.”

“So then why don’t  _ you _ match  _ my _ hairstyle, huh?” Yosuke reached out with the intention of mussing Souji’s hair to match his, only to blink in surprise as his fingers smoothly slid through Souji’s hair. “Wow, and you said  _ my _ hair was soft?”

“Softer than it looked,” Souji corrected, though there was a slight hitch in his voice that gave Yosuke pause, enough for him to become aware of the light blush on Souji’s cheeks and--more importantly--of the fact that he was now the one running his fingers through his partner’s hair like it was the most natural thing in the world.

As nice as it was to turn the tables on Souji, it was also  _ really _ embarrassing, more than Yosuke could handle right now without his entire face spontaneously combusting.

“Sorry!” Yosuke yelped, hastily drawing his hand back as if burned and pointedly ignoring the look of disappointment that flashed across Souji’s face in response.

This was starting to toe the line of what Yosuke was and wasn’t comfortable with acknowledging, at least for now. He already had to deal with the sudden revelation that he enjoyed having Souji playing with his hair; the last thing he needed to do was to add in Souji enjoying  _ Yosuke _ playing with  _ his _ hair too.

That wasn’t normal, was it? Granted, they were pretty far beyond any semblance of  _ normal _ at this point, plus they were partners so that meant it was okay if things were a little…  _ different _ from a regular friendship between two totally-normal guys, but….

Yosuke shoved all of his thoughts aside for the time being, instead focusing on giving his partner a grin as he lightly bumped his shoulder against Souji’s. “C’mon, didn’t you wanna try out that new game? Let’s get it started up.”

When Souji’s features relaxed into a small yet genuine smile in response, Yosuke felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his chest, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what he’d been so worried about to begin with.

Everything was fine. He could reexamine this whole incident in the (relative) privacy of his own bedroom later that night, turning it over in his head from every angle possible until he figured out whether he was uncomfortable because he genuinely didn’t like the idea or if it was just because it was something new and different and terrifying, like everything in his life that involved Souji as of late.

For now, though, just sitting next to Souji as they played Yosuke’s new video game together, lightly leaning their weight against one another like it was second nature as their shoulders and arms and legs brushed against each other… that alone was more than enough.


	9. Kiss on the Forehead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~"Didn't you already write a sickfic with Yosuke taking care of Souji--" shhhhh this one's different I swear~~
> 
> Minor spoilers for P4G January in this one!
> 
> It was certainly a challenge to come up with an idea for a pre-relationship forehead kiss that wouldn't send Yosuke into cardiac arrest lmao but I think it came out well enough in the end ;u;

“Damn it partner… how did you let yourself get this bad?”

Yosuke crouched by Souji’s side, where Souji was tucked into his futon after Yosuke had--with some difficulty and a lot of embarrassment--carried him up to his bedroom. Apparently Teddie had thought it was a genius idea to just put Souji under the kotatsu, which (in retrospect) was probably at least partially why Souji’s cold had gotten worse instead of better, but….

Well, Yosuke knew Souji, and he knew that Souji had probably been feeling bad for a while but had ignored all the warning signs. Honestly, for someone who fussed over everyone else’s well-being, he had no self-preservation instincts whatsoever.

His selflessness would normally be an admirable trait--but now that Souji was laid up in bed looking completely miserable, it just made Yosuke want to grab his partner by the shoulders and shake him, until he started taking even just  _ half _ the amount of effort he put into looking after others and putting it into looking after  _ himself _ for a change.

Not that it would do any good now, of course. The damage was already done, and thankfully Yosuke had come to check up on Souji, otherwise even  _ more _ damage probably would’ve been done thanks to Teddie’s “helpful” nursing efforts.

(Yosuke couldn’t exactly  _ blame _ the bear, of course, since he knew Teddie was just doing his best given his limited knowledge of how human illnesses worked, but… at the same time, he really wished that Teddie would have just called him and asked him to come over right away, before Souji’s fever ended up getting even worse than it already had been.)

Yosuke carefully brushed aside Souji’s bangs, too concerned for his partner’s health to even bother being grossed out by how matted with sweat they were, and dipped a rag into a bowl of cool water that he’d gotten from the kitchen, wringing out the excess water before folding up the rag and setting it on Souji’s forehead.

For better or worse, the sudden change in temperature must have been enough to rouse Souji from his restless sleep, as his eyes slowly cracked open.

“Yosuke…?” Souji breathed out, his voice hoarse, as he blinked blearily up at the figure kneeling next to his futon.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Yosuke confirmed, keeping his voice down to avoid aggravating the pounding headache that Souji was most likely suffering from. “Ted left a while ago. I convinced him to switch with me, since… no offense, but he  _ really _ didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Seriously, who puts a sick person under a  _ kotatsu? _ ”

“He was trying his best, I’m sure,” Souji replied, in his usual fashion of giving even the most undeserving of people the benefit of the doubt, before falling into a coughing fit that had Yosuke scrambling to help him sit up so he could breathe.

“Easy, partner, easy--take slow, deep breaths,” Yosuke said, rubbing Souji’s back until the coughing fit subsided. “That really doesn’t sound too good… maybe we should bring you to the hosp--”

“ _ No _ .”

With one hand still on Souji’s back and the other gripping Souji’s shoulder to keep him balanced, it was impossible for Yosuke to miss the way Souji tensed up before the word could even finish leaving Yosuke’s lips--and though he was reluctant to back down, he could at least acknowledge why a hospital was the last place Souji would want to be after the past two months that he’d had.

He’d probably seen the inside of that hospital enough for several lifetimes, let alone one.

As much as Yosuke was worried about him, he didn’t want to risk forcing the issue and sending Souji into another choking fit--nor did he want to betray his partner’s trust when Souji was looking at him with that silent, pleading gaze, a look that he’d only ever seen a small handful of times in the nine months that they’d known each other for--so he let the matter drop with a sigh.

“Alright, fine. No complaints if you end up getting worse instead of better though, got it?”

Souji gave him a small smile, the slightest hint of gratitude in his gaze as he replied, “I won’t, not with you helping me.”

Yosuke firmly ignored the heat gathering in his cheeks as he grabbed the rag that had fallen off of Souji’s forehead and dipped it back in the water, if only to give himself an excuse to keep his gaze away from the earnest look in Souji’s eyes.

“We’ll see. I mean, I’ve never taken care of someone when they’re sick before, so for all we know I could be even worse than Teddie.”

Souji let out a quiet huff of laughter. “I mean, you didn’t leave me under the kotatsu, so that’s already one point in your favor.”

Yosuke rolled his eyes and lightly pushed at Souji’s shoulders to get him to lie back down.

“I highly doubt that counts,” he replied wryly, as he picked the rag up out of the bowl and wrung it out so he could put it back onto Souji’s forehead. “Now stop talking before you start choking again.”

Souji looked up at Yosuke, the slightest hint of mischief hidden beneath his usual impassive expression as he said, “Alright. I’ll leave myself in your care then, nurse Yosuke.”

The comment immediately evoked the desired effect: Yosuke’s face flooded with heat as he sputtered, his embarrassment not at all helped by Souji’s shoulders shaking with silent laughter at his expense.

“You-- god damn it partner, you ass… I swear, I should just leave you here to take care of yourself!”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Souji replied with a soft smile.

Yosuke grumbled under his breath, moving the rag off of Souji’s forehead and plopping it down over Souji’s eyes instead.

“Oh, just go back to sleep already, would you?”

Souji chuckled quietly but complied, not needing much convincing when he still felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Honestly, the only thing that surprisingly  _ wasn’t _ aching at the moment was his head, specifically where Yosuke’s hand continued to gently rest on top of the cool rag covering his eyes.

It was a comforting weight, one that eased him back into a light yet much-needed sleep almost as soon as he’d closed his eyes.

* * *

Yosuke watched Souji carefully for a good few minutes before finally assuring himself that Souji had (thankfully) fallen back asleep.

Not that Yosuke didn’t enjoy talking and joking around with his partner--even if Souji seemed to get way too much of a kick out of embarrassing him--but he really  _ was _ worried about Souji pushing himself too hard if he kept forcing himself to stay up and talk. Even if Yosuke didn’t know much about taking care of someone who’s sick, he knew enough from his  _ own _ times being sick that getting some rest would do wonders for speeding up the recovery time, if nothing else.

Besides just sleep and cooling Souji off, though… it was hard to remember what else his mother would do for him, on the few occasions when she’d taken off from work to look after him when he’d gotten sick. He could vaguely recall bitter medicine and bowls of soup, both of which he would probably have to figure out how to get for Souji, but other than that….

Well, he could remember  _ one _ more thing his mother would do for him, but he wasn’t going to do  _ that _ for Souji. Even just the thought was enough to bring back his blush (that had  _ finally _ begun to fade) with a vengeance, the heat spreading all the way to the tips of his ears as he moved his gaze over to Souji’s forehead.

Granted, she’d always said it was what helped him get better quickly, and though he knew  _ logically _ that you don’t recover from a cold with just a kiss to the forehead, he  _ also _ knew after the past nine months that sometimes there were things that logic couldn’t properly explain.

(Or maybe he was just making up excuses, trying to find loopholes to justify indulging in one small gesture that Souji would never even know about.)

He tentatively moved his hand back up to Souji’s hair, lightly toying with the sweat-matted locks and watching Souji carefully for any sign of a reaction--and when Souji’s breathing remained even, Yosuke let the tension in his body drain away in relief.

Souji was apparently sound asleep, which meant he wouldn’t wake up even if Yosuke decided to… conduct an experiment. Yeah, that’s what it was, he was experimenting to see if his mother was lying whenever she insisted that her little “magic spell” was what helped Yosuke recover from his colds every time he got sick.

(Okay, fine, the excuse sounded pathetic even to his own ears, but how  _ else _ was he supposed to justify taking advantage of the situation to even just come close to doing something he’d wanted to do for months now?)

He stared down at Souji for a moment longer before taking a breath, letting it out slowly, and leaning over to lightly press his lips against Souji’s forehead for a whole split-second before hastily straightening up, his face bright red and his eyes searching Souji’s face in a panic for any signs of a reaction.

Yosuke’s shoulders slumped in relief when Souji’s breathing remained slow and steady, the cool rag continuing to rest over Souji’s eyes and his facial expression staying exactly as it was a second ago.

Okay, so he finally got that weird urge out of his system (for the most part, but he wasn’t even going to start entertaining the thought of kissing Souji anywhere  _ else _ besides just the forehead), the world hadn’t come to an end, and Souji was still fast asleep and none the wiser. All-in-all, it was safe to say that his little experiment ( _ indulgence _ ) had been a complete success.

With a grin on his face and a light flush to his cheeks, Yosuke pushed himself up to his feet, figuring he should at least make use of Souji being asleep to check what medicine he had around the house. He wasn’t going to leave Souji to go to shopping, of course, but he was sure any one of their friends would be more than willing to take a quick run to the store for him if necessary, if it meant helping Souji out.

Humming quietly to himself, Yosuke pulled out his phone and wandered out of the room, getting ready to send out a group text to update everyone on Souji’s condition and to see who was free to drop off supplies if necessary.

* * *

As soon as the sound of Yosuke’s humming and footsteps faded away, Souji allowed himself to swallow thickly, his eyes wide open behind the damp rag resting on his face and his heart hammering in his chest, with the flush of his fever covering up the light blush in his cheeks.

Had Yosuke just…?

No, he’d imagined it. He had to have imagined it.

But if there was even the slightest chance that the feeling  _ hadn’t _ been a product of Souji’s fever-muddled mind and his own hopeful thinking, then….

Well, maybe he would take a chance and try sitting Yosuke down for a talk, once he’d recovered enough from his cold. It couldn’t hurt, right? If Yosuke reacted negatively, Souji could just brush it off as a fever dream and laugh it off with him, no harm (hopefully) done.

If Yosuke reacted  _ positively _ , however… well, Souji didn’t want to get his hopes up just yet, so he would just leave that train of thought there for now.

Instead, he merely closed his eyes once more, and focused on relaxing enough to fall back asleep before Yosuke could return, a small smile easily working its way onto his face as he gradually drifted back off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clearly, Yosuke is so good at dancing because he's been performing mental gymnastics for an entire year to dance around his feelings for his best friend (this child is a disaster and I love him)


	10. Karaoke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Souji's turn to have the anxiety braincell, Yosuke can have it back next chapter lol

If Souji could name one flaw of his, it would be his inability to say no to people, especially to people that he cared about.

Normally he didn’t mind going above and beyond to make people happy--really, he didn’t--but sometimes he found himself wishing that he could grow _just enough_ of a backbone to be able to say “no, I really don’t feel comfortable doing this, I’m sorry”.

Like now, for instance.

Souji _hated_ singing: he hated how his voice sounded, and no amount of confidence gained over the past few months could change the fact that even just the thought of having to pick up a microphone and stand in front of people to sing was already making him want to curl up into a ball and die of self-conscious embarrassment. Yet here he was, being dragged off to do karaoke with his friends because it was apparently some sort of staple of teenage life that Souji had been missing out on--and because his weak protests that he didn’t _mind_ that he was missing out on this one supposedly-important experience fell on deaf ears, as his friends all laughed and waved him off while saying that he didn’t know what he was missing.

All he could do now was hope that the day passed quickly, preferably in a blur that Souji could block out from his memory entirely. Or maybe if he concentrated hard enough, he could harness enough of Izanagi’s power to short-circuit the entire karaoke place.

… No, he couldn’t even entertain the idea as a joke. He’d feel terrible if he inconvenienced an entire establishment just because he was being a petulant child, not to mention how much more horrible he would feel if he made his friends upset.

And that was the real root of the issue, wasn’t it? He just couldn’t stand disappointing people, especially not people that he cared about. There were so few people in his life that he actually considered himself close with, and the last thing he wanted was to be selfish and give them a reason to not want to be around him anymore, as irrational as it may have been to think that way about people that literally put their lives on the line day in and day out fighting by his side in the TV world.

So when it came down to it, he just couldn’t say no, even if it meant putting himself in a position where he felt his stomach turning and twisting with nerves. As long as his friends were happy, that was all that mattered.

By the time he sat down in the private karaoke booth with the rest of his team, he felt as if his body was made of lead and his throat was constricting, yet he kept his expression as calm as possible as everyone spread out on the couches lining the walls of the booth and excitedly began going through the list of songs.

As soon as music began to play in the room, Souji felt a wave of dread wash over him, almost powerful enough to make him nauseous. It was only a matter of time now before someone realized that he hadn’t put a song in yet, but a small, foolish part of him wanted to hold out hope that maybe they _wouldn’t_ notice--or even better, maybe they would notice that he didn’t want to participate and would just let him sit and watch them.

He could handle that. Honestly, he would enjoy just sitting and listening to everyone else sing, no matter whether they sounded as amazing as Rise or as… _unique_ as Teddie.

When Yosuke suddenly gave him a light nudge, Souji nearly jumped out of his skin, just barely managing to suppress the reaction into a small flinch that Yosuke didn’t seem to notice.

“Dude, it’s like getting to watch a private Risette concert!” Yosuke said giddily, leaning close to Souji so he could be heard over the music without shouting and disturbing Rise’s performance.

Not trusting his voice, nor trusting his façade to hold up if he met Yosuke’s gaze, Souji merely gave a nod in response and continued to stare straight forward, watching as Teddie enthusiastically banged a tambourine and danced around while Rise put on a show with a bright grin, the rest of the group laughing and clapping along with the beat.

It should have made him happy--and it did, of course, on some level--but it mainly filled him with an even stronger mixture of guilt and dread.

If he hadn’t been able to say no before, then he sure as hell wouldn’t be able to say no _now_ , not after seeing how much fun his friends were having. How could he live with himself if he selfishly ruined today for them, after all the stress they’d gone through together trying to solve a murder case? Today was supposed to be a joyful celebration, not a day for Souji to burden everyone with his irrational discomfort with singing and his dislike of his own voice, of all things.

“Did you wanna put one in next?”

Again, Souji found himself having to hastily stifle his jumpy reaction into a small flinch when Yosuke’s voice suddenly broke through his spiraling thoughts, his heart dropping as he saw the song book in Yosuke’s hands.

Right. Okay. Time to do this, then. It was just one song, how bad could one song possibly be?

(Very bad, but he wasn’t going to think about it, he _wasn’t_ \--)

He hardly even realized how long he was staring down at the book for, keeping a carefully blank mask of composure on his face the whole time--but once he finally managed to force his body to cooperate enough for him to move his arm, he reached out towards the song book, only to blink in confusion when Yosuke suddenly pulled it away and held it out of his reach.

Reflexively, he looked up from the book and over to Yosuke, intending on asking what he was doing--

\--only for Yosuke to lift the book and lightly tap it against Souji’s head, startling and further confusing him.

“Seriously, partner, you have to learn to say _no_ if you don’t want to do something.”

Immediately, Souji felt tension seize his body, grasping his heart in a vice grip and stealing the breath from his lungs in a blind panic.

He thought he’d done a good job of hiding it, so _how_ \--

Yosuke rolled his eyes and tapped the book against Souji’s head once more before setting it aside, out of Souji’s reach.

“C’mon, dude, give me some credit. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” When Souji’s gaze frantically flitted around the room, glancing at the rest of the group, Yosuke added, “No one else is paying attention; I doubt they can even hear us over those two.”

With an amused expression and a jerk of his head, Yosuke gestured to the front of the room, where Rise and Teddie had stepped aside for Chie and Yukiko. The former of the two was grinning and purposely singing with an overdramatic flair while the latter tried--and failed--to sing along through her laughter, which was even louder than normal with a microphone in hand.

Souji let a small bit of the tension drain away at the realization that no one else had noticed what Yosuke had. Everyone was still having a good time; he hadn’t ruined anything yet.

“You know you don’t _have_ to sing, right?” Yosuke said, and though there was a hint of wry humor in his tone, his expression was gently reassuring as he met Souji’s gaze. “We just wanted you here with us, that’s all. Wouldn’t be much of a celebration without our leader, y’know?”

The vice grip on Souji’s heart began to loosen, the breath slowly returning to his lungs.

“I won’t say that I don’t get it, though,” Yosuke added, his expression falling slightly in sympathy. “Not being able to say no, being willing to do whatever it takes if it means keeping people happy and by your side--I’ve been there, I’m still… well, you know me. You already saw that part of me.”

There was a hint of vulnerability in Yosuke’s tone and Yosuke’s gaze, hidden beneath the shadow of a smile on his face, and Souji--despite feeling his heart clenching--felt relief rushing through him in response.

Yosuke had seen straight through Souji’s act, and had seen even further, straight through to the root of the issue--all without Souji saying a single word.

Sometimes, Souji wondered if Yosuke realized just how incredible he really was.

“But you don’t have to feel like that with us,” Yosuke continued, his smile widening back into a reassuring yet slightly teasing look as he lightly bumped his shoulder against Souji’s. “Trust me, you can’t get rid of us _that_ easily, and _definitely_ not by saying you don’t want to sing _karaoke_ of all things.”

Souji couldn’t help but huff out a quiet laugh at that, his nerves settling from both the affectionate gesture and the blunt statement.

When Yosuke put it like that, he really _did_ feel a bit silly, getting anxious that he would be ruining the best friendships he’d ever had over saying no to singing a song.

And then Rise bounded up to him with a giddy smile and thrust a microphone in his face, and all of his receding anxieties did a one-eighty and slammed right back into the forefront of his mind with nearly enough force to make him physically lurch from the mental whiplash.

“Senpai~ I’m up again after Chie-senpai and Yukiko-senpai! Come sing a duet with me!”

A millisecond’s worth of panic flashed in his eyes before he reflexively covered it up with his usual, composed expression. He knew Yosuke said he didn’t have to sing if he didn’t want to, but he didn’t want to disappoint Rise, he _couldn’t_ disappoint her--he didn’t want to be the reason that excited smile fell away, because if she started getting upset then everyone _else_ would get upset, and then things would get awkward and the entire day would be ruined because of him over something that was supposed to be fun and--

A hand reached out around Souji, startling him out of his thoughts, and he watched in a mixture of bewilderment and surprise as Yosuke pushed the microphone away from Souji’s face.

“He doesn’t feel comfortable singing,” Yosuke said, much to Souji’s alarm--but before Souji could so much as open his mouth to force out an _it’s fine, I’ll do it, I don’t mind singing one song, don’t worry_ , Rise’s smile was already beginning to fade into a disappointed pout--

\--before perking right back up into a smile as she shrugged and replied, “Well, if Senpai doesn’t wanna then that’s fine.” She skipped over towards Kanji as she added, “Guess I just have to settle for Kanji instead~”

“Whaddya mean _settle?_ ” Kanji huffed, trying and failing to repress a smile as he snatched the microphone from her hand and stood up. “I’ve got the voice of a damn _angel_ , just so you know.”

“Yeah, a _dying_ angel, maybe,” Chie retorted as her song came to an end, grinning and dissolving into giggles alongside Yukiko as Kanji shot her a glare.

Teddie overdramatically hid his head in his arms as he covered his ears. “My poor, sensitive ears won’t be able to handle the un _bear_ able sound of Kanji’s bad singing!”

“Shaddup you dumb bear!” Kanji exclaimed, his voice carrying even louder through the microphone. “Like your singing’s any better?!”

Rise huffed. “Guys, be _quiet_ , the song’s gonna start!!”

As the room dissolved back into chaos over the sounds of music coming from the speakers, Yosuke gave Souji’s side a light nudge with his elbow, pulling Souji’s stunned gaze away from the group and over to him.

“See? What’d I tell you?” Yosuke smiled and gave Souji a playful wink. “You can’t get rid of us _that_ easily.”

Slowly but surely, Souji felt the nervous tension bleeding out of his body once more, his surprise fading into a warm look as he met Yosuke’s gaze.

“Thank you, partner.”

Souji watched as Yosuke’s cheeks began to darken, yet despite Yosuke’s clear embarrassment, his smile widened into a pleased grin.

“Anytime, partner.”

When Yosuke bumped his shoulder against Souji’s, neither of them said a word about how he lingered for longer than necessary, nor how Souji leaned into the gesture until they were all but resting against one another for a few, peaceful moments as they simply enjoyed both the joyful energy that filled the room, and the closeness between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it wasn't obvious by now, one of my favorite Souyo dynamics is Souji saying practically nothing out loud, but Yosuke still manages to pick up on all the little nonverbal details and put the pieces together to figure out what's on his mind anyway ;u;


	11. Horror Movie Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter one this time, but hopefully it's enjoyable nonetheless ;u;

Yosuke, as Souji discovered, did not exactly have the highest tolerance for horror movies.

Granted, he was at least better at handling them than, say, Chie, who would scream if Yukiko so much as blew a puff of air behind her neck in a dark room--which, on the one occasion that this actually  _ did _ happen on a movie night with the team, then set off a chain reaction of practically everyone else screaming in response, Yukiko falling into a hysterical laughing fit, and Chie shaking and fuming in embarrassment while threatening bodily harm to anyone that wasn’t Yukiko who dared to so much as chuckle at her expense once they all realized what had set her off--but that also might have been because Yosuke usually tried to put on a brave façade if there were other people around to observe him. He had a tendency of acting tougher than he was when there was anyone nearby to witness his behavior, and (amusingly and endearingly enough) he would continuously cast not-so-subtle glances in Souji’s direction while doing so, as if trying to gauge and match Souji’s own natural level of composure.

When it was just Souji and Yosuke  _ alone _ , however, it was a whole other story.

Maybe it was because Yosuke trusted Souji not to laugh, or to tell anyone or use this information against him in any way--in which case, Souji was flattered to know that his partner trusted him enough to let his guard down like this--but regardless of the reason, the real problem wasn’t that Yosuke couldn’t handle horror movies.

It was that Yosuke couldn’t handle horror movies, and was still determined to watch them with Souji anyway, because Souji  _ could _ handle them and because Yosuke had--at some point--made it a self-imposed challenge to find at least one horror movie that would manage to at least unsettle Souji, if not outright scare him.

Selfishly, Souji couldn’t find it in him to complain, even if he felt a bit bad for Yosuke. After all, any time Yosuke watched horror movies, he tended to get a bit…  _ clingy _ while he was freaking out. Even when they watched one horror movie as a group, he sat much closer to Souji than he would usually, and kept flinching and briefly pressing up against his side before hastily straightening back up--and when it was just the two of them… well, needless to say the first time Yosuke threw his arms around Souji and buried his face against his side, with one eye still peeking out to watch the movie, Souji was almost positive that both his heart and his brain flatlined, since he couldn’t for the life of him remember anything that happened for the rest of the movie.

Souji was a good person, but even he was only human. He had his moments of underhanded selfishness too, and though he would never go out of his way to forcibly scare Yosuke, if Yosuke was continuously going to draw comfort from clinging to Souji like an oversized teddy bear every time they watched horror movies together… well, it wasn’t like Souji was going to  _ stop _ him, and he certainly wasn’t complaining about it either.

(It was only years later, after Souji and Yosuke began living together as roommates and  _ partner _ -partners, that Souji discovered that he wasn’t the only underhandedly selfish one in their now newly-formed relationship: Yosuke had known fully well what he was doing the entire time, and Souji would have been frustrated over the lost years spent pining if it wasn’t so hilarious that Yosuke thought that admitting he was scared of horror movies, and then subsequently using that excuse to cling to him, was somehow  _ less _ embarrassing and damaging to his pride than outright admitting that he just wanted to hug Souji.)


	12. “I almost lost you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one has endgame spoilers (for the final fight on 3/20), so keep that in mind before reading! Enjoy! <3

One would think that after defeating a goddess, Souji would have been able to sleep soundly, if not from peace of mind then at least from exhaustion.

Yet here he was, at almost one in the morning, still wide awake as he tossed and turned in his futon--and of course, his constant reminders to himself that he had to be up in a few hours to catch the train out of Inaba weren’t doing much to help him relax enough to go to sleep either, leaving him feeling frustratingly restless and anxious.

He knew the fact that he didn’t want to leave was a part of why he was having so much trouble sleeping. Inaba was more of a home to him than anywhere else that he’d ever lived, and all of the friends that he’d made were more like family to him than his own family--save for his uncle and Nanako, of course, the former having grown to be more of a father figure to him than his own father, while the latter felt more like the younger sister that he’d never had rather than the distant cousin that she’d been at the beginning of the year.

It was going to hurt, having to leave them all behind, even if he knew that they were only a phone call and a train ride away. Despite the pain, however, he wasn’t too worried about the distance affecting them--after everything that they’d all been through together, he was confident that one year of distance between them wouldn’t put so much as a dent in the strong bonds that they’d forged with one another.

So if it was just that on his mind, he was sure he would be able to put it out of his head and go to sleep, reluctant as it would have been.

Unfortunately, that was only a small fraction of what was really making him feel so restless and unsettled.

The fight with Izanami had been… well, Souji was pretty sure he was justified in calling it traumatic--though he was also pretty sure it was even worse for his friends, who had been trapped in the dark abyss of Yomi until Souji had gathered enough strength to break free and defeat Izanami once and for all. Still, the sight of watching his friends get dragged under in his place one by one, the conflicting expressions of terror and relief on their faces as they traded their lives for his despite their own fears…

Even now, it made Souji’s stomach turn, his insides twisting anxiously as his hands continuously twitched in the direction of his phone.

He needed to make sure they were really okay. He needed to make sure this wasn’t just another dream that he was trapped in, an illusion, a fantasy, something being shown to him to make him let his guard down so he would stop fighting--

Souji’s phone suddenly lit up with a series of quiet vibrations, startling him from his spiraling, scattered thoughts and causing his heart to leap up into his throat as he scrambled to grab for the device.

_ >hey srry bet ur asleep rn _ _   
_ _ >hope im not waking u up _ _   
_ _ >just feeling a little _ _   
_ _ >idk _ _   
_ _ >restless? _ _   
_ _ >srry _ _   
_ _ >teds snoring up a storm so i cant talk 2 him _ _   
_ _ >& i no i should b sleeping 2 but _ _   
_ _ >everytime i close my eyes i just _ _   
_ _ >idk _ _   
_ _ >srry _ _   
_ _ >u probably wont even read this til 2moro _ _   
_ _ >dont worry abt it _ _   
_ _ >think i just needed 2 ramble a bit _

Souji stared down at his phone, watching each text pop up one right after the other--and he could almost picture Yosuke sitting in bed, under the covers with his knees pulled up to his chest, trying not to disturb Teddie’s sleep even as he typed away on his phone with shaking hands--

Without thinking, Souji hit the call button and lifted his phone up to his ear, and it took hardly half a ring before he heard Yosuke’s voice on the other end of the line.

“ _ P-partner? What-- why are you-- are you alright? Crap, I didn’t wake you up, did I? I’m sorry-- _ ”

“I couldn’t sleep either,” Souji confessed quietly, immediately silencing Yosuke’s frantically whispered rambling. “I don’t….”

Souji trailed off, the words catching in his throat:  _ I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I don’t want to be alone right now. I don’t want to leave Inaba feeling like this. _

Yosuke was silent on the other line for a few moments--and just when Souji was about to check if the call cut off, he finally heard Yosuke’s voice again, saying the words that Souji had hoped in his heart to hear from him.

“ _ I know. Samegawa, fifteen minutes? _ ”

( _ I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight either. I don’t want to be alone right now either. I don’t want to see you off tomorrow feeling like this. _ )

Souji smiled and immediately pushed himself up out of bed, his heart already feeling lighter as his anxiously-twisted insides slowly began to unravel.

“Sounds good to me, partner. See you there.”

* * *

As promised, by the time fifteen minutes passed, Souji had thrown on clothes and snuck out as quietly as he could so as not to wake up his uncle or cousin, and was making his way towards the Samegawa riverbank with his jacket pulled tightly closed around him. Though it was already the end of March, the nights were still a bit chilly--probably too chilly to be sitting near the water, honestly--but regardless, it was still preferable to sitting cooped up in his bedroom, tossing and turning in bed.

Souji was only slightly surprised to see that Yosuke had beaten him to the riverbank, with his bike set aside against a nearby tree as he sat on the grass. His headphones were over his ears and his back was to Souji, seeming to not even notice Souji as he stared out at the water with the same hint of a haunted gaze that Souji had seen on himself in the mirror not too long ago. Immediately, Souji felt his usual instincts kicking in, urging him over to Yosuke’s side to try and help his best friend, his own issues be damned--yet when Souji took a seat next to Yosuke, he was surprised to see Yosuke’s expression shift to one of sympathy and concern when he finally glanced over at him, as if  _ Souji _ was the one that needed consoling.

“How are you holding up, partner?” Yosuke asked quietly, pulling off his headphones and setting them around his neck.

Souji’s brows furrowed slightly. “I was going to ask you the same thing,” he confessed, with a small hint of sheepishness in his tone. “I was worried when I saw those texts, but--”

He cut himself off, yet Yosuke--for better or worse--was always the one person in Inaba (the one person in Souji’s whole life) who could see right through him and understand him without any words needing to be said.

“But you were relieved,” Yosuke finished with a small, humorless smile on his face, “that you weren’t the only one.”

Souji dropped his gaze, ducking his head guiltily as he murmured an apology, only to look back up as Yosuke lightly bumped his shoulder against him with a soft chuckle.

“Don’t apologize.” Yosuke continued to wear a wry smile on his face as he spoke--and instead of pulling away after the brief moment of contact, Yosuke lightly leaned against Souji’s side as he quietly continued, “I was relieved too, honestly. When you called, and when you said you couldn’t sleep. I don’t know if everyone else is feeling it too, but….”

_ But I wanted it to be you. I’m glad out of everyone, it was you. _

The words hung in the air, unspoken yet undeniable, and it was somehow even more of a comfort to feel the implicit meaning of what was left unsaid in the closeness of their bodies as it would have been to just hear the words said straight out.

There were a million things that Souji could have said, a million things he wanted to get out in the open before his time in Inaba was up.

_ I’m sorry for not being strong enough. _

_ I don’t want to go. _

_ Please don’t forget me. _

_ I swear I won’t forget you. _

_ Thank you for being the best friend I’ve ever had. _

_ I love you. _

Yet all he could manage--as he shakily reached out to take Yosuke’s hand in his own, entwining their fingers together and squeezing desperately--was a soft, breathless, “ _ I almost lost you. _ ”

He’d watched them all disappear, one by one, and yet… Yosuke had been the first--and logically, he knew it was because Yosuke was the fastest, the one that was always right by his side, so of course he would be the first to react when he saw that Souji was in danger, but…

But that was the one thing that Souji couldn’t bear. Watching his best friend, his partner, one of the most important people in his life and in his  _ heart _ , just… get pulled down to his  _ death _ because of  _ him _ , because Yosuke had been protecting  _ him _ , because he was their leader and he’d  _ failed _ \--

Yosuke gave Souji’s hand a tight squeeze in response, and just like magic, Souji’s mind was pulled out of his living nightmare and back into the present.

“You didn’t,” Yosuke replied, strong and firm and more vulnerable than Souji could ever remember hearing him. “You didn’t lose me. I’m here.  _ You’re here _ .  **_We’re_ ** _ here. _ ”

( _ I almost lost you too. _ )

Souji leaned against Yosuke’s side a little more, held his hand like the lifeline that it was, and breathed out a soft, “Yeah. We’re here.”

They were both here. They were both alive.

Even if Souji was leaving in a few hours, even if he wouldn’t be able to confirm for himself every day, with his own two hands and his own two eyes, that his friends, that Yosuke, that Nanako and his uncle were all okay--

Yosuke leaned against him in return, his hand remaining firmly entwined with Souji’s as the two of them lapsed into silence, watching the minutes until Souji’s departure pass them by as the sun slowly began to rise.

Even if Souji wouldn’t be here tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that… he was here  _ now _ , and that was enough for them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh this one was so fun to write and still makes me feel so sad and bittersweet ;u;


	13. Meet the Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There needs to be more of Yosuke showing off his retail/people skills, because he seems way better at reading people and leading conversations when he wants to than he gets credit for imo ~~even if he just as often has a habit of unintentionally sticking his foot in his mouth lol;;~~
> 
> I also feel like Yosuke's the type of person to sit down in front of a test or a homework assignment and not know what two plus two is, but ask him anything about pricing or money and he'll give you the answer off the top of his head, which is probably a weirdly specific headcanon to have lmao but it's always stuck out to me that as much as he complains about tests and bad grades, he never seems to struggle with working what's practically an unofficial managerial position at Junes, plus he seems pretty good with finances and budgeting? It makes sense in my head at least lol;;
> 
> Anyway tl;dr: have a chapter about Yosuke using his retail skills to charm Souji's not-so-great parents and get them off of Souji's back, because he's not about to stand around and watch anyone talking down to his partner <3

Neither Souji nor Yosuke had meant for it to happen.

Souji had been confident that his parents wouldn’t return for another few days at the very least, as they were away on one of their many business trips--which was more of a constant than them actually being home, really. So when Yosuke had asked if he could stop by for a visit and stay the weekend with him, of course Souji had given a heartfelt  _ yes _ that might have come off as a bit more enthusiastic than he normally allowed.

Not that Yosuke had said anything about it, of course. He wouldn’t have had much room to talk even if he wanted to poke fun at Souji, though, considering how excited he himself sounded at the prospect of getting to visit his partner and spend time with him again after going a good few months without seeing each other face to face.

The first day had gone just as they hoped it would, with Souji meeting Yosuke at the train station and--after parting from a hug that Souji had been  _ very _ surprised to be on the receiving end of, though he was far from complaining as he hugged Yosuke back without hesitation--leading the way back to a condominium that felt far too large for even three people to live in, let alone Souji all by himself. They got settled in, with Yosuke leaving all of his stuff in Souji’s room (and lightly poking fun at Souji for arranging his room to look almost like a carbon copy of his room in the Dojima household, even if he understood why Souji had done it), and then promptly left to go wander the streets of Tokyo side by side.

Souji couldn’t say he was a fan of the city--honestly, he preferred the quiet, peaceful nature of Inaba over the loud hustle and bustle of Shibuya--but there was no denying how much he enjoyed seeing Yosuke come to life as they walked around and checked out some of the different stores in the area, conversation easily flowing between them as if they hadn’t even spent a single day apart.

The sun began to set before they even knew it, and their evening was spent together back at Souji’s: first in the kitchen, as Souji prepared dinner for them with Yosuke’s help (upon Yosuke’s insistence, since he felt bad just standing around and watching); then in the living room, as they put on a cheesy movie to laugh at in between inhaling the delicious home-cooked meal; and then finally in Souji’s bedroom, where Yosuke set up the video game console he brought with him upon finding out that Souji didn’t have one of his own, the two of them sitting comfortably close to one another as they played a few rounds before exhaustion began to kick in.

Honestly, even if it was sad to think, Souji couldn’t help but feel like this place had never felt more like  _ home _ than it did with Yosuke here by his side. Even if Yosuke would be returning to Inaba in just one more day, even if the loneliness would probably hurt even more now that Souji had gotten a taste of what this place could feel like with a little bit of  _ warmth _ and  _ life _ breathed into it, Souji couldn’t find it in him to feel anything other than pleased contentment as he whispered a goodnight to Yosuke and got a  _ goodnight, partner _ in return, Yosuke’s voice immediately reaching his ears without needing to pass through a phone in a small town miles away from Tokyo.

It was on Yosuke’s second day--his final day, technically, since he had a train to catch early in the morning the next day--that things went wrong.

The thing was, while Souji was (in the words of Yosuke’s parents) practically an adopted member of the Hanamura family with how often he spent time with Yosuke during his one-year stay in Inaba, it was easy to forget that Yosuke had never actually met Souji’s parents in return. Or at least, not his  _ biological _ parents, because everyone in Inaba knew that Dojima was more like a father to Souji than an uncle, and Nanako called Souji “Big Bro” so often that it was easy to forget that they were technically cousins and not siblings.

It was also easy to forget, with how little Souji spoke about his parents, that the relationship between them wasn’t exactly the greatest.

The sound of the front door unlocking startled both Souji and Yosuke out of their lighthearted conversation as they cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast, their laughter immediately dying down as they glanced towards the doorway with expressions of dread--for Yosuke because he had no idea who could be entering the locked condo, and for Souji because he knew  _ exactly _ who could be entering the locked condo.

The two adults that stepped past the front door with luggage in tow were dressed to the nines, with the man wearing a pressed suit and the woman wearing a dress that Yosuke could tell from a single glance was way too expensive with an overpriced bag on her arm to match, and it was only the sight of the man’s particular shade of gray hair that made realization click in the back of Yosuke’s mind.

These were Souji’s parents.

“Souji, darling, we’re-- oh.”

There was an awkward moment as Souji’s parents registered Yosuke’s presence, the tension in the air feeling nearly stifling, before Souji’s mother finally looked over at Souji and spoke.

“Ah, I had no idea you invited…  _ company _ over,” Souji’s mother said, the slightest hint of a disapproving frown on her face. “You know your father and I are in no state to entertain after being hard at work for so long.”

To Yosuke’s surprise, Souji--his brave, stubborn leader that stared a goddess in the eye and fought to and beyond his last breath in defiance--glanced away, guilt clear in his posture even as he tried to keep a steady, firm tone.

“I thought you and Father weren’t supposed to be home until next week, and you don’t have to ent--”

“And because we weren’t  _ supposed to be _ home, I suppose that gave you free rein to do what you wanted,” Souji’s father interrupted, in a tone that instinctively made Yosuke’s gut twist nervously--there was quiet power and authority in his voice, similar to Souji’s whenever he lead their team through the TV world but lacking the traces of reassuring warmth that Souji’s tone always held onto no matter the circumstances. “So this is what you’ve been doing, then? Throwing parties and opening our home to the public, while we’re hard at work footing the bill?”

“That’s not what I--”

“Souji darling, just because we trust you to watch the house while we’re away doesn’t mean you can just do as you like without permission,” Mrs. Seta continued, her softer tone somehow feeling even worse than the coldness in her husband’s voice--she was obviously trying to play the part of a good mother, but her words felt more like she was admonishing a small child than speaking with someone who was almost a fully grown adult. “We raised you better than that. You should know better.”

The light, chagrined color filling Souji’s cheeks and his downward, submissive gaze as he murmured an apology was what finally snapped Yosuke out of his stunned stupor, slingshotting him straight into indignant irritation that he just barely managed to cover up using every last ounce of experience in working in retail that he had.

He stepped forward just the slightest bit, unconsciously angling himself in a protective stance as he eyed the two adults in front of them with a calculating gaze hidden behind a polite smile.

Just like with their Personas, Izanagi and Susano-o, Souji’s weakness was Yosuke’s strength: it didn’t matter that this wasn’t the TV world, and it didn’t matter that he couldn’t use his Persona here to fight back--this was no different than dealing with Shadows, looking to target his leader’s weaknesses, and Yosuke wasn’t going to stand for it.

If Souji couldn’t defend himself, then Yosuke would step up and protect him from harm in his stead.

“Sir, ma’am, if I may?”

Yosuke had customer service down to an art, for better or worse, and he was no stranger to having to talk down an irritated, self-entitled customer--so when Souji’s father opened his mouth to speak, no doubt to tell him to stay out of their family business, Yosuke pushed on before the man could so much as utter a single syllable.

“I just wanted to express how grateful I am that you opened your home to me,” Yosuke continued, in a carefully-practiced pleasant tone that was  _ just _ close enough to sincere to not come off as saccharine. “Souji was kind enough to let me stay the night to study for our upcoming exams together, but I really am sorry if my being here is inconveniencing you in any way.”

Yosuke rapidly flicked through the facts that he had available to him in his mind along with his own quick observations as he spoke, looking for scraps to latch onto and twist to his advantage.

Souji’s parents were self-centered? Don’t try and argue against them, just appeal to their ego instead to soften their irritation.

Souji’s parents didn’t want Souji having friends over for fun? Change the purpose of his visit to something that would make Souji look better.

Not only were they self-centered, but they were apparently extremely materialistic, too: Yosuke could spot several different recognizable brand names just at a quick glance between the couple, clearly worn as a statement of affluence rather than for any practical use.

So basically, they were no different than any other shallow person Yosuke had dealt with before, even if they were probably in a slightly higher economic class than Yosuke’s own lower-middle-class family or any of the other middle-class people he’d had to deal with while working in retail in the city. If Yosuke had to guess (with absolutely no offense to Souji himself), Souji’s parents were probably the type that were just barely above the threshold for upper-middle-class and were trying a little too hard to fit in with a wealthier crowd, with how they were practically covered head to toe in expensive brand names. The fact that Souji himself was always so modestly dressed and owned hardly any possessions of his own before coming to Inaba was just a testament to his disapproval of his parents’ nature, and probably a large part of why they didn’t get along well in the first place.

Both adults seemed to be surprised by Yosuke’s declaration, no doubt having judged him at first glance and brushed him off in their minds as some bratty teenager taking advantage of a rich kid--which would have irritated Yosuke if he wasn’t too busy using that to his advantage, to catch them off-guard enough that they would forget why they were getting so worked up (and who they were getting so worked up  _ over _ ) to begin with.

Yosuke was completely unsurprised to find that Souji’s mother recovered first, clearly the good cop to Mr. Seta’s bad cop as she gave him a close approximation of a motherly smile.

“Well, aren’t you a polite one! How refreshing to see someone your age showing proper respect,” she said lightly, and Yosuke very nearly bristled at the subtle jab aimed at Souji, the words  _ unlike my own son _ left unsaid yet hanging clearly in the air.

If she was still focusing on dragging Souji down, then Yosuke would just have to push a little harder to get her to focus entirely on him instead.

“Of course,” Yosuke replied with a smile that was--in his humble opinion--way more convincing than the act Mrs. Seta was putting on. “Souji’s told me so much about you two,” he continued, trusting his partner’s poker face to not give anything away as Yosuke kept the honeyed lies flowing and ramped up the charm to cater to their egos. “He never mentioned what a good-looking couple you two are, though,” he added with a grin, satisfied when--though Souji’s father didn’t have any visible reaction--Souji’s mother gave a soft titter in response.

“Polite,  _ and _ a charmer? Oh, Souji darling, where did you find this one?”

“We’ve been friends for a while now,” Yosuke replied smoothly, sensing without even needing to glance back at his partner that he was at a loss for words. Of course he knew better than to make any mention of Inaba, not around shallow people like this who would go right back to judging him if they knew he lived in such a small, backwater town, so he kept things as vague as possible to let them fill in the blanks on their own. “Souji’s been a huge help to me. Honestly, I wouldn’t be where I am in my life now without him.”

(Now that,  _ that _ was the only bit of truth that Yosuke was willing to give them, not that they even deserved that much.)

“Anyway,” Yosuke continued, quickly shifting gears to get the focus away from Souji and back over to his parents once more, “he mentioned you were into fashion, ma’am, but I have to say, he really downplayed it--you have  _ excellent _ taste. I think I’ve seen that bag alone go for”--Junes didn’t carry expensive brands like the Louis Vuitton he could clearly see hanging off of her arm, of course, so it wasn’t like he  _ actually _ knew the price off the top of his head like he might for some of the less expensive brands that they had in stock, but Yosuke knew enough about retail pricing and popular brand name mark-ups to do some quick math and make an educated guess--”about… oh, one hundred thousand--no, one hundred ten thousand yen, if I’m remembering right?”

“One hundred  _ twenty _ at full retail, actually,” Mrs. Seta corrected, clearly impressed judging by her expression. “I didn’t realize you were so knowledgeable about high-end fashion.”

While Yosuke’s own expression outwardly remained the same, he mentally grinned and did a little fist-pump in success. He was just under the margin enough to give her room to gloat, but not too far under that she felt like he was insulting her and implying that she had cheap taste.

Not to toot his own horn or anything, but  _ damn _ was he good.

He waved off her comment with a sheepish smile and a modest, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal, really. I’m sure anyone with some sense for good quality products would be able to recognize it just as easily”, even as he inwardly scoffed. Of  _ course _ anyone would be able to tell, when she was practically a walking advertisement for expensive brand name items.

Still, he could clearly see that Souji’s mother’s opinion of him had shifted--as had her focus on Souji, which was the important part--when she began chattering at him about her other most recent “investments” of the fashion variety.

It took all of Yosuke’s self-restraint to keep a smug grin off of his face as he politely nodded along at the right intervals.

One down, and one to go.

Thankfully, it seemed that while Mr. Seta was clearly the man of the house, it was Mrs. Seta that held a lot of the clout in their relationship: Souji’s father already seemed to have lost the majority of his quiet irritation upon seeing his wife happily bragging, and it didn’t seem like he needed much more pushing to finish the job as he simply stood by and calmly observed the conversation.

Thankfully, Mr. Seta himself provided the opening that Yosuke needed, as soon as there was a brief lull in his wife’s (largely one-sided) conversation.

“What did you say your name was again, son?”

The question from Mr. Seta briefly caught Yosuke off-guard, especially since Mrs. Seta had done the majority of the talking between the two, and he just barely managed to keep his facade from cracking in embarrassment as he belatedly realized that he forgot to start off with giving his name.

At least Souji’s father was giving him an out, intentionally or not, by making it sound like Yosuke’s name had just gotten lost in the conversation.

“Yosuke Hanamura, sir,” he replied, offering his hand in a handshake that the older man took with a hint of approval in his otherwise stoic gaze, one that Yosuke probably wouldn’t have even caught if he wasn’t so good at reading Souji’s subtle expressions.

(Hold eye contact, make sure to give a firm handshake, not too tight or you’ll come off as aggressive but not too loose or you’ll come off as weak--he never would have thought that his father’s lessons on dealing with the occasional corporate higher-up that would come in to inspect Junes would be useful here, but he sure as hell wasn’t complaining if it helped win Souji’s father over.)

“Reo Seta, and this is my wife, Akari. It’s good to know our son has found himself a respectable, well-educated friend like yourself.”

Yosuke very nearly laughed at that-- _ him _ , respectable and well-educated? These people would probably have a heart attack if they looked at his grades from one year ago; the only reason he was doing better in school was because of Souji’s help and his endless patience.

Still, if that’s what Souji’s father had gotten out of this whole exchange, then that was all the better for Yosuke, who gave a modest smile and a shrug in response.

“I could say the same about Souji, sir. I’m glad to have a friend like him as well.”

(Again, another grain of truth, one that Yosuke couldn’t help but add. If anything,  _ Souji _ was the respectable and well-educated one out of the two of them, and all Yosuke was doing was emulating him until he could attain for himself that same level of maturity and intelligence that Souji carried so easily.)

The air around them--once thick with tension and muted anger--had completely done a one-eighty and now felt completely warm and relaxed, and Yosuke just barely managed to repress a grin at the realization.

They were both down for the count, and now all Yosuke had to do was finish the job and they were home-free.

“Anyway, I’m sure you two are exhausted from your trip, so I don’t want to hold you up any longer. I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time--”

Yosuke could barely even get the fake apology past his lips before Souji’s mother jumped to shoot it down with a smile.

“No, no, dear, you weren’t holding us up at all! It was a pleasure to get to meet you, truly! Please, feel free to visit any time you’d like.”

A free pass to visit Souji whenever he wanted? Souji’s parents may as well have just handed him a golden ticket with how hard he had to repress a victorious grin into a polite smile.

“Thank you very much, ma’am, I appreciate that.”

Apparently satisfied with Yosuke’s response, Souji’s parents excused themselves to bring their luggage into their bedroom, and Yosuke waited a moment to make sure they were gone before letting himself slump in relief with a long sigh.

Battle clear, Yosuke’s victory. A hard-fought one, but certainly well worth it if they completely forgot about their anger towards Souji by the end of it.

“Man, I haven’t had to kiss ass that hard since a coworker accidentally knocked over a tower of soup cans onto a guy from headquarters,” Yosuke joked weakly, turning to face Souji as he belatedly realized that Souji was completely silent--and had been throughout the entirety of the exchange, for that matter. “Uh, partner? You good?”

Souji’s stone-faced expression quickly relaxed at the sound of Yosuke addressing him, as if he’d been stuck on pause and Yosuke had just hit the play button on his brain--yet the expression that took its place was almost more startling than the completely blank look that Souji had been wearing earlier.

Yosuke couldn’t help but blush as Souji stared at him in unabashed  _ awe _ , like he was a god that had just performed a miracle right in front of his eyes.

“How did you-- that was-- they  _ never _ \--”

Souji was, for the first time since Yosuke had met him, completely at a loss for words, stumbling over half-formed thoughts and looking so stunned that Yosuke almost found himself laughing.

_ Almost _ , but not quite. As amusing as the sight was, Yosuke also realized that Souji genuinely wasn’t used to seeing anyone dealing with his parents, especially not for his sake.

The thought made his heart clench in a mixture of anger and sympathy, even as he gently gripped his partner by the shoulders and gave him a smile.

“Let’s go to your room, c’mon.”

Souji’s stammering came to an abrupt halt at that, apparently catching on to what Yosuke was hinting--if they were going to talk about any of this, it was probably better to do it in a place where Souji’s parents wouldn’t be able to accidentally overhear them--as he gave a nod and led the way back to his room, with Yosuke following and closing the door behind them.

“Yosuke,” Souji began, wasting no time as soon as the two of them were in private, “you’re  _ incredible _ .”

Yosuke blushed heavily, nearly choking from the sudden (genuine,  _ warm _ , just as warm as the look in Souji’s eyes as he continued to stare at Yosuke in amazement) compliment being directed at him.

“F-for what, kissing ass?” Yosuke replied with a weak laugh. “You shouldn’t be praising me for that, it was kind of pathetic honestly--”

“It wasn’t pathetic, and you weren’t  _ kissing ass _ ,” Souji immediately replied with a brief hint of a disapproving frown, one that quickly returned to an awed smile as if he just couldn’t restrain himself. “My parents didn’t seem to catch on to what you were doing, but I saw you guiding that conversation from beginning to end. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone handle my parents as efficiently as you did--or handle  _ anyone _ like them as well as you did, for that matter. It was amazing to watch.”

Yosuke quickly forced himself to glance away, his face burning all the way to the tips of his ears. “That’s-- I mean, I’m sure anyone could--”

“If ‘anyone’ could, then I would have been able to talk them down myself,” Souji replied softly, with a clear hint of guilt that immediately pulled Yosuke’s attention back over to him, his own embarrassment be damned.

“Souji, partner,  _ no _ . They’re your parents, it’s-- it’s not easy to talk back against your parents. I can’t pretend to know what it’s been like for you, but even just from that one interaction with them I could tell what kind of people they are, and… those are some of the hardest types of people to deal with,  _ especially _ if you’re related to them I’d imagine.” Yosuke reached out and gently gripped Souji’s shoulders, giving them a small, reassuring squeeze. “Don’t blame yourself, it’s not your fault at all.”

Souji reached up and put his hand over one of Yosuke’s, giving it a small squeeze in return as a silent  _ thank you _ before smiling slightly and saying, “In any case, what you did wasn’t something that just anyone could do. You understand how to read people and navigate conversations, that’s a talent that not everyone has--not to mention your observational skills, and your business and retail knowledge. Those are all things that you’ve worked hard at developing, whether you realize it or not, so please give yourself some credit.” With a hint of wry humor, he added, “ _ I _ wouldn’t have even been able to guess how much my mother’s overpriced bag was worth. I think the only reason I know they even  _ make _ bags that expensive to begin with is because Ai dragged me around as her shopping caddie for half the year, and even then I hardly retained anything that she said.”

Yosuke couldn’t help but let out a huff of laughter at that, even as he moved his hands off of Souji’s shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck with a hint of sheepish embarrassment.

“It’s not like I pay much attention to that stuff either, I just… well, I dealt with a lot of people back in the city while working at Junes, and I had to know at least close approximations for people looking to buy that kind of stuff without emptying their entire bank account, so I guess some of that just… stuck, or something. Y’know, repetition or whatever. It’s really not a big deal.”

“Yosuke, you shouldn’t put yourself down,” Souji gently chided--and this time he was the one to reach out to Yosuke, much to Yosuke’s flustered shock, as he gently took hold of Yosuke’s hands in his own and gave them a light squeeze. “You’re incredibly intelligent, and you have people and conversational skills down to an art.”

“B-but, I mean, so do you--”

“Yosuke, you and I both know that’s not true,” Souji interrupted wryly. “You had to speak on my behalf for the majority of the year, and the only reason I started being able to handle myself was by forcing myself through drama club, to learn how to better express myself so I could catch up to you.”

“To--” Yosuke swallowed thickly, his voice suddenly growing hoarse as he whispered, “You were… trying to catch up to  _ me? _ ”

Souji gave Yosuke a small, warm smile. “Of course I was, partner. I’ve tried to tell you for so long now, that this was never just a one-sided friendship: I saw qualities in you that I envied as well, and that pushed me to work harder to better myself.” Unable to help himself, he teasingly added, “Even if you made quite a few…  _ insensitive _ and  _ oblivious _ comments throughout the year, you were still an inspiration to me regardless.”

Yosuke blushed and huffed lightly, giving Souji’s ankle a light kick since Souji was still holding his hands captive.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I was a dumbass and said some crappy things, and I said I was sorry to everyone already--”

“I know, Yosuke, I know, I was just teasing.” Souji gave Yosuke’s hands another gentle squeeze, smiling as he watched Yosuke’s blush darken in response. “But in all seriousness… thank you, partner, for helping me and dealing with them for me. I’m proud of you, and I appreciate you more than I could ever say.”

Yosuke could feel his face burning, all the way to the tips of his ears and down the back of his neck, and he quickly dropped his head to try--in vain--to hide his wobbly grin.

It was probably stupid and pathetic of him to feel so happy over being thanked and praised like this, but… well, Souji always had a way of affecting him differently than anyone else.

(And judging by all of the different, blatant emotions that he’d witnessed on Souji’s face when Souji was normally the picture of calm composure… Yosuke could only hope that he had a way of affecting Souji differently than anyone else, too.)

“You don’t have to lay it on so thick, partner, jeez…,” Yosuke groused, even though he knew his protests weren’t fooling either of them. It was hard to sound convincingly annoyed when he couldn’t stop smiling, after all. “A-anyway, why don’t we head out, so we don’t run into your parents again for the rest of the day?”

“Actually,” Souji replied as he let go of Yosuke’s hands, with a hint of mischievous amusement in both his tone and his eyes that Yosuke immediately knew was bad news for him, “we  _ do _ have exams coming up… we should probably use this time to study. After all, that  _ is _ what you said you came here for, isn’t it?”

Yosuke groaned.

“Partner, you can’t be serious! You know why I said that!”

“Yes, and now that you put the thought in my parents’ heads, they’ll probably end up checking in on us to make sure we’re progressing with our  _ studying _ ,” Souji replied wryly, letting out a quiet huff of laughter at Yosuke’s look of dread.

“B-but-- oh, but I didn’t bring any study materials with m--”

Yosuke didn’t even have the chance to finish his flimsy excuse before Souji pulled out a spare notebook from his bookshelf.

“I don’t write in any of my study guides, and I have a few notebooks to spare. We can go through some of the practice exams together.”

Yosuke let out a long sigh and slumped in defeat.

Somehow, his victory over Souji’s parents didn’t feel as sweet anymore.

Though, Yosuke amended as he looked at the small, happy smile on Souji’s face and the lack of tension in his body, he supposed that wasn’t entirely true: even if he would have to spend his last day here with Souji studying instead of having fun, he couldn’t bring himself to regret standing up to Souji’s parents and getting them off of Souji’s case, not if it meant getting to see Souji at ease and knowing that Souji was able to relax because he had stepped in and helped diffuse the situation.

Plus, Yosuke had gotten their approval and their blessing to come and visit Souji whenever he wanted. That alone was worth giving up one day to studying: now Souji wouldn’t have to be wary of letting his parents know that someone was coming over, whether they were home or not (though of course, Yosuke would still be timing his visits for whenever they weren’t home, to avoid any more potentially awkward encounters).

All in all, though it had been completely unexpected, Yosuke was glad to say that his first meeting with Souji’s parents had gone much better than it could have--and was even  _ more _ glad that it was over and done with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have, unfortunately, encountered people exactly like Souji's parents lmao so this _might_ have come a bit from experience, though I wish I was half as skilled at dealing with people as Yosuke can be when he tries sdfkj;; People who are trying too hard to look rich apparently _love_ bragging about how much they spent on things and how expensive their stuff is, at least from my experience lol
> 
> ~~Also yes I did look up prices for Louis Vuitton in 2012 and usd- >yen conversion rates from 2012 just for a single throwaway line, I spent way too long on that just to make sure it was right lmao~~


	14. Piggy Back Ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a small reference to the King's Game in this one, so I guess that counts as spoilers?? Lol
> 
> I have nothing to say for this one except enjoy 1k+ of Souji carrying his flustered partner on his back ;u;

None of them had expected the Shadow that appeared in the Secret Laboratory to be so overpowered.

To be fair, while the Shadows that appeared at the end of each completed dungeon always put up a decent fight, the last battle with the one that appeared in Marukyu had been a walk in the park, so  _ maybe _ they hadn’t had their guards up as much as they should have when they decided to ride the high of finishing off one powerful Shadow by going to tackle another--but that realization wasn’t going to do anything to change the fact that they were currently getting their asses handed to them by this Shadow that kept targeting their weaknesses and knocking them all down one after another.

The only one managing to put up a decent fight was Souji, and the strain of constantly switching Personas to stay one step ahead of the barrage of powered-up magical attacks was clearly taking its toll on him, if his heavy breathing and slight grimace was anything to go to by.

And of course, because Yosuke’s luck was so abysmal, he not only had the pleasure of getting targeted the most often, but his attacks also seemed to do the least amount of damage on the stupidly powerful Shadow compared to Souji’s electricity, Yukiko’s fire, or Teddie’s ice.

Not to mention that physical attacks hardly even put a dent in the Shadow, meaning all Yosuke could do was be a second-rate healer to back Yukiko up when her energy began dropping--whenever he was on his feet long enough to do so instead of laying on his ass, that is, trying desperately to shake off the trembling in his limbs that came with the agonizing shock of being hit by an overpowered  _ Ziodyne _ .

So it went without saying that as soon as Yosuke finally saw his opportunity to be  _ useful _ , he took it without a second thought.

He hardly even cared about his own well-being as he rushed over to Souji’s side, shoving him out of the way of a hit that would have caught Souji completely off-guard in his exhausted state and hoping--as he began to black out from being hit directly with another enhanced  _ Ziodyne _ , because of  _ course _ it was always  _ electricity _ , of  _ course _ the damn thing couldn’t have used a  _ Garudyne _ instead--that this would give Souji enough time to gather his bearings and finish this stupid Shadow off for good.

* * *

When Yosuke returned to consciousness, it was to a feeling of warmth and a distinct lack of pain as he leaned against something soft yet sturdy, the faint sensation of moving up and down nearly lulling him back into an unconscious state as he relaxed with a soft sigh.

It was only the sound of a quiet, gently teasing voice that slingshotted his mind straight back into awareness.

“Finally awake?”

Yosuke’s eyes shot open, and he just barely bit his tongue in time to stop himself from reflexively screeching in mortification and blowing out Souji’s eardrum--because their faces were  _ inches apart _ and his head had been resting in the crook of Souji’s neck and Souji was carrying him on his back and  _ oh my god _ \--

“Good morning to you too,” Souji added wryly, upon hearing the strangled noise of embarrassment that Yosuke let out.

“Wh-what happened? Why are you-- why am I-- w-wait, the Shadow, did we--”

“Yosuke, breathe.”

Despite the humiliation frying Yosuke’s brain and coloring his cheeks a bright red, all it took was two words from Souji in that calm, steady tone of his, and suddenly Yosuke found himself able to relax--if not fully, then at least enough to stop stammering and rambling, which was enough for now.

Thankfully, since Souji was walking behind everyone, no one noticed that Yosuke was awake yet, nor did they notice Yosuke’s freak-out. Small blessings, he supposed.

“We rushed to beat the Shadow a bit after you went down. You--” Souji paused for a moment, a small frown on his face, before continuing. “You gave us all a real scare, partner. Please don’t do that again.”

Yosuke huffed, though inwardly he was a cross between pleased and mortified to hear that everyone had been so worried about him that they blasted through the rest of the fight just to get him to safety. It was frustrating to know that he’d essentially been dead weight, but at the same time… he couldn’t deny the warmth that he felt just from knowing that they all cared about him that much.

“Sorry partner, can’t do that.” He smiled weakly. “I’ll be more careful, but if I ever see you in danger… you know I can’t ignore that.”

Souji sighed as he shook his head slightly, clearly not surprised by Yosuke’s response despite not being pleased with it.

“A-anyway,” Yosuke continued before Souji could say anything else, “I’m fine now, so can you… put me down?”

Souji hummed, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye--and to anyone else, his expression would have looked impassive as always, but Yosuke could clearly recognize the glint of mischief in his gaze ( _ especially _ from this close up, to his embarrassment).

“I think you still need more rest,” Souji replied. “Leader’s orders.”

Yosuke groaned, but he knew that if he really wanted Souji to put him down, then he could easily put up enough of a struggle to get off of Souji’s back on his own--and more mortifying was the fact that Yosuke knew that  _ Souji _ knew that as well.

“ _ Partner _ ,” he whined quietly, not wanting to attract the attention of any of their friends, “come  _ on _ \--”

“You weren’t protesting nearly this much the last time, during the King’s Game,” Souji continued, the corners of his lips just barely twitching in restrained amusement.

“Dude, please don’t bring that up--and I totally  _ was _ protesting, I protested the whole way through!!” Yosuke’s arms reflexively tightened their grip on Souji as Souji adjusted his hold on him, his face burning in embarrassment as he hissed, “What is this, some sort of punishment for making you worry? I said I was sorry!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Souji replied innocently. “You just need more rest, remember? Leader’s orders.”

Yosuke huffed and hid his flushed face in the crook of Souji’s neck as he muttered, “Jerk.”

Yet despite his grousing, he couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corners of his lips.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just… pretend he was still asleep for a little bit longer, if Souji wasn’t going to put him down any time soon. Just in case any of their teammates decided to look back and check on them.

“Fine,” Yosuke mumbled, his voice muffled against the collar of Souji’s jacket, “you win. Happy?”

“Very,” Souji replied with no hesitation, prompting a quiet snort of laughter from Yosuke.

Souji could be so weird sometimes. What kind of guy  _ enjoyed _ carrying another guy on his back?

( _ What kind of guy  _ **_enjoys_ ** _ being carried on another guy’s back? _ another voice whispered in the back of his mind. Yosuke didn’t even bother dignifying it with a response.)

“If you say so, partner.”

With that, Yosuke closed his eyes, intending on indulging Souji’s weird insistence that he get some more rest for just a few minutes.

And if a few minutes ended up turning into the entirety of the return trip to the backlot… well, Souji had no intentions of waking his partner up when he was sleeping so peacefully against him, and the rest of the team seemed to--thankfully--read the mood around them, since none of them said a word about the small smile that remained on both Souji and Yosuke’s faces for the entire trip back.


	15. Pet Names

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, looking the prompt, and then looking at Yosuke canonically calling Souji "Partner" constantly: it's free real estate

The first time Yosuke called him “partner”, Souji thought that it was just a slip of the tongue, or a one-time little joke.

It was around the fourth or fifth time that it finally sunk in that Yosuke was really serious about this whole  _ partner _ thing--not that Souji doubted that Yosuke really wanted to work together with him to catch the killer, but rather he hadn’t expected Yosuke to slot himself in so neatly at Souji’s side and start using a nickname for him so casually.

Never in his life did Souji ever have someone close enough to him to want to call him by a nickname, let alone a nickname that was so… well, maybe Yosuke didn’t realize the implication of  _ closeness _ that it gave off combined with how inseparable the two of them quickly became, but regardless, Souji found that he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he might.

Honestly, it was kind of nice, having this kind of relationship with someone, especially knowing that it wasn’t a superficial relationship in the slightest. Yosuke didn’t just call himself Souji’s partner, and didn’t just call Souji his partner: he genuinely acted the part, too, over the course of the next few months, as Souji’s right-hand man both inside and outside the TV world. Even the rest of the team knew that--though they were all important to Souji in their own ways--Yosuke had a special place in Souji’s life that no one else could ever fill.

Yosuke was the one person who understood Souji with just a glance, who could look Souji in the eye and immediately know what was on Souji’s mind without him saying a word, who could see right through Souji’s act each and every time that he tried to pretend the burden of leadership wasn’t getting to him--

So of course, when the nickname first slipped past Souji’s lips as he spoke about Yosuke--his  _ partner _ \--it was filled with far more affection and warmth than he could ever possibly hide from anyone, let alone from Yosuke himself.

Not that Yosuke seemed to mind, surprisingly enough. In fact, despite the embarrassment coloring his entire face, Souji could clearly see the pleased grin that Yosuke was just barely repressing, along with the hint of relief in his gaze as he tentatively glanced over at Souji before quickly looking away.

“Was it that surprising?” Souji found himself asking, once the group disbursed and it was just him and Yosuke walking side by side.

As usual, Souji didn’t need to elaborate or explain himself: somehow, Yosuke always knew what he was talking about--and the few times that he didn’t, he was always the first to catch on after hardly a moment or two of thought.

“Not…  _ surprising _ , or at least not in a bad way,” Yosuke replied, a light blush dusting his cheeks. “I just… I think that was the first time you’ve ever called me partner--not that you have to or anything!” he hastily amended. “I-- I mean, I guess I knew you were alright with  _ me _ calling  _ you _ partner, but I didn’t think-- I wasn’t really expecting you to--”

“Partner.”

All it took was one word from Souji to cut Yosuke’s nervous rambling off, and Souji found himself enjoying Yosuke’s choked noise of embarrassment--as well as the bright red color that rapidly filled Yosuke’s face in response--perhaps a bit too much.

“You’re doing this on purpose now,” Yosuke whined, moving a hand to try in vain to cover his flushed face. “Jerk.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, partner,” Souji replied innocently, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as Yosuke blindly swung a weak punch in his direction in response, with his head turned away as his blush extended to the tips of his ears.

Maybe it was a bit mean of him, but he couldn’t help teasing Yosuke just a bit, especially not when he had such expressive (and cute) reactions.

He didn’t want to push too much and risk making Yosuke genuinely irritated with him, though, so he decided to quit while he was ahead as he lightly bumped his shoulder against Yosuke’s in a silent apology--and as Souji had expected (hoped), Yosuke immediately returned the gesture despite his flustered grumbling.

If Yosuke had this much of a reaction to being called by a(n admittedly affectionate) nickname in public, then perhaps Souji would wait until they were alone before bringing it up again.

(Though he supposed in the end, it was Yosuke who got the last laugh--because even if Yosuke was still flustered by Souji calling him partner, Yosuke in turn somehow managed to make Souji’s own  _ name _ feel like a term of endearment on the rare occasions that he used it in lieu of his usual nickname. Not that Souji was complaining, of course. Far from it, really.)

(Despite his embarrassment, Souji found himself repressing just as giddy of a grin on each occasion that Yosuke called him by name, just as Yosuke did whenever Souji called him his partner.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe there's only one prompt left... I also can't believe it's already December but I think that's just a 2020 mood in general lmao;;


	16. Sharing An Umbrella

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for the final prompt, we have Souji and Yosuke sharing(?) an umbrella with not a single braincell to be found between them lol
> 
> ~~I know I could've gone with the actual canon scene in the game where they shared an umbrella, but honestly, writing Yosuke freaking out was way more entertaining akdsfj~~

It should have been a habit by now to check the weather--and it was, really. It just so happened that the one day Yosuke ran out of the house without checking, with barely enough time to make it to school without getting marked late, was also the one day that the skies decided to open up in the afternoon.

Yosuke groaned and lightly thunked his head against the entranceway of the school, staring listlessly out at the downpour as he weighed the pros and cons of trying to run all the way to Junes with nothing but his jacket and his schoolbag as options to shield him from the rain. He’d hoped that he could wait out the worst of it, but it seemed as if the rain was getting heavier instead of lighter, and now he was in serious danger of being late for his shift, which would mean he probably wouldn’t have any time to grab a change of clothes, and--

“Yosuke? You’re still here?”

Yosuke jumped slightly, startled by the sudden voice addressing him, only to relax in relief when he turned and saw Souji standing behind him.

“Oh, hey partner. Yeah, I was just… trying to wait out the rain, but that kind of backfired on me,” Yosuke replied sheepishly. “What about you?”

“Drama club.” Souji took out an umbrella from his bag--because of course, unlike Yosuke, Souji always came prepared--and met Yosuke’s gaze with the slightest hint of amusement as he asked, “I’m guessing you forgot to check the weather this morning?”

Yosuke blushed lightly in chagrin and quickly glanced away. “I was running late this morning, alright? And it was totally clear out when I left; I wasn’t expecting the skies to open up like this.”

Souji hummed and stepped past Yosuke so he could open his umbrella, before gesturing for Yosuke to follow him. “Let’s go. Were you heading home, or to Junes?”

It took a moment for Souji’s offer to sink in, but as soon as it did, Yosuke felt his already-flushed cheeks heating up even further as he waved his hands in protest and laughed nervously.

“Dude, it’s fine, really! You don’t have to--”

If anyone in town saw Yosuke sharing an umbrella with another guy… well, maybe he was getting a bit ahead of himself, and he supposed it couldn’t be any worse than showing up to Junes looking like a drowned rat, but--

Souji made the decision for him as he offered the umbrella to Yosuke and said, “Then you can take it. I’m fine to walk home in this; I’d rather not risk you getting sick.”

Yeah, there was no way Yosuke was letting  _ that _ happen.

“I swear, partner, sometimes you can be so stubborn.” Yosuke firmly pushed the umbrella back towards Souji, an embarrassed blush still coloring his cheeks even as he stepped forward so they could both stand under the umbrella together. “I have a shift at Junes, but I don’t want to make you go out of your way--”

“I need to pick up groceries for dinner anyway,” Souji replied easily, a satisfied smile on his face as he began to walk with Yosuke alongside him. “We can walk to Junes together. I’m sure you can pick up an umbrella there for yourself if it’s still raining by the time your shift ends--unless you want me to wait for you and walk you home.”

Yosuke huffed and gave Souji a light shove, only feeling somewhat guilty when Souji’s shoulder got immediately drenched in the rain in response.

“I’ll get my own umbrella, thanks,” Yosuke replied dryly. “You don’t have to escort me everywhere.”

Souji hummed thoughtfully, as if he was actually mulling over the idea of escorting Yosuke everywhere, and it took all of Yosuke’s self-control to not give Souji another light shove back into the rain.

“You’re so weird, partner, I swear,” Yosuke grumbled instead, fighting the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips as he firmly turned his gaze back to the path in front of him.

They fell into silence, the rain falling and relentlessly pattering against the umbrella serving as the only noise around them--and while Yosuke never found himself minding long stretches of silence when he was with Souji, their lighthearted conversation had served as a temporary distraction from the fact that Yosuke and Souji were currently walking through the streets of Inaba pressed up against one another under a shared umbrella.

But of course now that Yosuke’s mind had drawn attention to that little detail, he found himself hyper aware of the lack of distance between them, his cheeks flushing once more as he subtly tried to ease himself out of Souji’s personal bubble without outright drenching himself in the heavy rainfall.

This worked for all of two seconds until Souji’s arm moved, tilting the umbrella to cover Yosuke in his entirety without stepping closer to him--and consequently resulting in half of his body getting caught in the downpour.

“Wh-- dude, what are you-- you’re getting soaked!!”

Yosuke hastily pushed the umbrella back towards Souji to cover him, only to end up pushing it too far away from himself in the process--and now they were  _ both _ half-drenched, with only their arms between them being spared the fate of being doused with cold rainwater.

Souji frowned and stubbornly pushed the umbrella back towards Yosuke, who then stubbornly pushed it back towards Souji, and before they knew it they were both pushing the umbrella back and forth between them as they tried in vain to cover the other. Of course, it was a moot point when they were now both completely soaked to the bone, and the simple solution would have been to just walk closer and properly share the umbrella, but the glint of amusement in Souji’s eyes over their silly, playfully obstinate squabbling made the slight chill of the wet clothes sticking to Yosuke’s body well worth it.

Just as Yosuke was sure Souji was going to give in, the wind suddenly picked up, causing both Souji and Yosuke to wince and reflexively move to shield their faces from the rain being pelted at them--and with that, the umbrella that was supposed to be their one shield from the rain was torn out of Souji’s slackened grasp, leaving the two of them to stare as the umbrella flew away before turning their gazes to glance at each other with matching expressions of bewilderment.

Yosuke wasn’t sure which of them broke out into laughter first, but even if running the rest of the way to Junes at full speed through the rain alongside his partner--laughing while trying in vain to not get any more drenched than they already were--wasn’t how he thought he’d be spending his afternoon, he found himself grinning from ear to ear the whole time regardless.

(He may have ended up even later for his shift than expected, and he may have had to spend the first fifteen minutes of his shift dripping wet until his mother came by with a change of clothes for both him and Souji and an admonishment for not being more prepared, but it was well worth it as far as Yosuke was concerned--and one glance at Souji was all he needed to know that his partner felt the same.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's over... honestly I'm shocked that I managed to not only do all of the prompts and stick to a consistent upload schedule from start to finish, but to also break 30k for the word count lol;; I'm so incredibly grateful for all the love and support I've gotten for all of these one shots, and I can't thank you all enough for every kudo, comment, bookmark, and even just the hits from people stopping by for a quick look! <333
> 
> I know 2020's been a rough year ~~understatement of the century lol~~ and I can only hope that my writing was able to brighten even one person's day ;u; Here's hoping that next year will be better for us all! I'll still be updating my P5 NG+ drabble fic collection through to the end of the year (and well into next year with how many prompts I have left to upload lol), but for those of you who aren't keeping up with that fic, I'll wish you all a happy holidays now, and I hope you have a happy new year! <3


End file.
